The first two days of the PCA General Assembly have gone remarkably well…The successes of Wednesday do not guarantee the outcome of Thursday’s business.   While much business remains to be settled by the PCA General Assembly, the first two days have been full of accomplishments for the Old School wing of the PCA. Tomorrow... Continue Reading

On Wednesday the 53rd General Assembly approved the majority of Review of Presbytery Records recommendations and heard reports from Mission to the World, Mission to North America, Covenant College, Covenant Theological Seminary, and others. The Ad Interim Committee on Christian Nationalism also presented its partial report. Full details and vote tallies in the report.  ... Continue Reading

Out of this love for humanity, the Word of God became human, so that we might receive salvation. This gracious gift, for Clement, looks primarily like a regeneration of the human person: in other words, salvation means eternal life, yes, but one that looks like holiness, freedom from the passions of the flesh, and the... Continue Reading

We can’t always control our circumstances, but we can control our response. We can cry out to the Lord and point others to Jesus, knowing we don’t have to worry about tomorrow because He is in control.   I sat alone in the psychiatric hospital, sad and discouraged. After a shocking family loss, I was... Continue Reading

The doctrine of providence teaches believers to reject both passivity and self-reliance. We are neither spectators in God’s world nor sovereigns over it. We are servants called to faithful obedience within the callings God has entrusted to us.   After hearing that God governs all things according to the counsel of his will, many Christians... Continue Reading

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan’s Christian walks through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, beset by fears and terrors on every side. Yet he presses on. And at the end of his journey, he crosses the river and enters the Celestial City, where all his fears are finally put to rest. So it... Continue Reading

Have you learned the lessons of grace? Grace does not teach us to live for ourselves, but it teaches us to live for Him.…The more we understand and love salvation by grace alone, the more zealous we will be for good works. Grace teaches us to look less like the world and more like the... Continue Reading

Christian Nationalism is ascending thanks largely to the decline of denominations and the absence of effective gatekeepers in American Christianity. Today, American religion increasingly is led and governed by popular online personalities who are fueled by controversy. The PCA preliminary report is an intelligent resource for resistance against Christian Nationalism. But sadly, it likely will... Continue Reading

The truth of election embraces the necessity of evangelism and missions and guarantees their success in God’s time and God’s way. This has been the strength and courage of thousands of faithful missionaries.   The Preciousness of God’s Election by Grace What Romans 8:28–30 teaches is that God really accomplishes the complete redemption of his... Continue Reading

Genesis 24 is a magnificent historical record, but it also paints a breathtaking picture of the Gospel. Consider the beautiful parallels: A bride is sought for a beloved, promised son. A faithful messenger journeys into a far country bearing news of the son’s immense inheritance. The messenger gives the bride beautiful gifts as a down payment... Continue Reading

Nominating Duncan was Richard Phillips, the current senior pastor of Second Presbyterian. Phillips said Duncan has the experience, competence, trust, and goodwill necessary to lead the General Assembly proceedings. He noted Duncan’s considerable experience at the Assembly and the competence with which he leads.   The 53rd General Assembly has elected Melton “Mel” Duncan, ruling... Continue Reading

The Assembly ratified most BCO amendments approved last year (with Item 3 defeated and Item 7 approved. The Overtures Committee continued its work, recommending approval for electronic meetings of committees, four-year terms for coordinators, and an amendment requiring both wine and grape juice for the Lord’s Supper at GA   Assembly Convenes The 53rd General... Continue Reading

God has put His righteousness on display for all people, including the Philistines. And yet, unless our hearts are softened to the Gospel, we will wriggle every which way in order to avoid His righteousness, and cling to the more accommodating moral standards of our idols.   Japanese lore has it that a powerful 17th... Continue Reading

The world God made is not our enemy. It is our home. The distinctions God established are not prison bars. They are load-bearing walls. They hold up the roof over our heads. Tear them down and the house does not become freer. It collapses.   There was a moment when I was deployed in Iraq,... Continue Reading

We are in the midst of a spiritual war, and the Devil crouches at the door. Am I strengthening my defenses or undermining them? Am I doing the things that will help me to be morally and spiritually strong, or am I becoming comfortable and complacent in the midst of moral and spiritual dangers?  ... Continue Reading

It is never too late to repent. The time to repent is always now. You cannot go back, but you can respond in the present.…Consequences may still come, but for a true believer, it is never too late to be restored to fellowship with God.   One of the most vivid biblical stories of a... Continue Reading

Believers love, obey, trust, worship, enjoy, and serve Christ in everything. As they do, they look ahead to an eternal future where they will see Christ face to face and live with him forever.   Paul’s Prayer Believers who know God should always want to know him more, to be where he is, to meditate... Continue Reading

The genuine Christian will show by his life and by his beliefs whether or not he is truly part of God’s family. And it can be hard to tell at times, which is why we must also recognise that while folks can fool others, they cannot fool God.   We now have plenty of men... Continue Reading

One spouse on fire for the recently discovered Reformed faith, devouring books on imputed righteousness, the regulative principle, and supralapsarianism, while the other wonders what’s wrong with their old Methodist (or similar) church. What counsel should pastors and churches give such couples?   One of the regular patterns I observed in my pastorate was the... Continue Reading

This novel adoption thesis cannot survive exegetical, historical, and especially metaphysical scrutiny without compromising the unity of the incarnate Christ or the integrity of the atonement, it must be rejected as incompatible with Chalcedonian Christology.   Why Add My Voice To this Watershed Issue? I cannot remain on the sidelines of this debate because the... Continue Reading

Among key recommendations: a day of prayer and fasting for revival (as amended), thanksgiving for adult professions of faith, and gratitude for the nation’s 250th anniversary. The committee also voted to keep current BCO language on deacons, rejecting overtures to allow women in the office, while advancing several targeted amendments on judicial processes, session records,... Continue Reading

If truth is personal, then disagreement becomes impossible. If truth is personal, correction becomes oppression. If truth is personal, morality becomes preference. If truth is personal, reality itself becomes negotiable. And if reality becomes negotiable, civilization itself begins to dissolve. This is precisely what we are witnessing today.   Few phrases better summarize the insanity... Continue Reading

The short biblical section I did read over breakfast was in Colossians chapter 1. It knocked straight into my discouragement. Beginning in verse 9, Paul says the Spirit gives us wisdom and understanding of God’s will so we can: 1) bear fruit through our works 2) grow in the knowledge of God 3) draw on... Continue Reading

A congregation sees the sermon on Sunday, but not the hours of study, prayer, and wrestling beforehand. They may notice a hospital visit, but not the many quiet phone calls, follow-up conversations, and intercessory prayers. They benefit from the church’s spiritual health without seeing the behind-the-scenes work of planning, conflict resolution, discipleship, and administration. This... Continue Reading

We have an invisible wall of distinction between ordained ministers and the other offices. The Anglicans shape their clerical office by separating the clerical and lay offices through the use of the terms “ordained” and “commissioned,” and we do not. We ordain every officer, lay or not, and this should not confuse us as to... Continue Reading

Denominations do not wake up one morning debating monogamy by accident. The road from one compromise to another is not always straight and every church that stumbles in one place does not arrive at the same cliff by sundown. Still, the habit of compromise is real. Once a church learns to set aside Scripture in... Continue Reading

The RPCNA is made up of 86 congregations (several were recently released to form the RPC of Canada) across 7 presbyteries. Currently 10 congregations are without pastors; we are also in need of more ruling elders; and finances are stable across the denomination (we have a $37 million synod-level portfolio plus other assets).   The... Continue Reading

 Jesus, the Glorious One, has been anointed and is even now at the right hand of God. And yet that same one knows what it means to be tempted in every way, just as you are. He is high above, and at the same time, infinitely down to earth. This is who you have in... Continue Reading

The Councils of Orange and Carthage had closed the door on this doctrine. But what was closed there was opened at Trent. The Magisterium’s reaction to the Reformation placed the pre-modern and now modern church that remains tied to Rome in contradiction with orthodoxy. This is hard for Roman Catholics to hear. Because no one... Continue Reading

Paul’s metaphor of the soldier’s armor has become so familiar to many of us that we have forgotten that God (via a letter of Paul) is instructing us to do certain things in preparation for spiritual warfare. Granted, there is some disagreement among New Testament scholars about what some of these metaphors represent. But I... Continue Reading