The Refreshment of Unlikely Friendship
Why John Owen Needed John Bunyan
Owen’s and Bunyan’s lives remind us as Christians that we all “stand in need” of friendship. We stand in need of each other’s gifts, even when they are far different from our own, and we stand in need of each other’s help and encouragement, especially in the most trying times. The Puritan theologian John... Continue Reading
A Final Plea to the 48th PCA General Assembly
The GA will face a major issue this year that has already caused many congregations to leave the PCA, and may very well cause a major split in the PCA.
As a denomination, you men of God will face a major issue this year that has already caused many congregations to leave the PCA, and may very well cause a major split in the PCA. Will teaching elders (and ruling elders) who identify as gays (or homosexuals) be allowed to hold office in this branch... Continue Reading
What the PCA Study Committee on Human Sexuality Did Not Study
The Report fails to present any serious theological discussion of sexuality in the light of the biblical doctrine of Creation.
Homosexuality is not only “sinful,” but, as Paul says in Romans 1:26, it is “unnatural.” It is not “unnatural” just because most people don’t understand it or don’t identify as homosexuals. It is unnatural because it is out of order with the physical cosmos as God made it. It is thus both a rejection of... Continue Reading
What the Bible Teaches About Fear & Courage
We can’t just pull up our bootstraps and overcome fear.
The only solution to living a life filled with fear is faith in the abiding presence and work of God with and for His people. The uncertainties and troubles of life must ultimately pale in comparison to the sovereign and powerful work of God, who by His Spirit actually dwells with us. The COVID-19... Continue Reading
Fighting Back Against Trans Madness and Tyranny
War has been declared on every person on planet earth who still believes in biology, in reality, and in truth.
Enough is enough. The trans madness has gone way too far. It is high time for some sanity, some reality, and some common sense. War has been declared on every person on planet earth who still believes in biology, in reality, and in truth. The trans militants have targeted all such people, declaring them... Continue Reading
Does the Bible Excuse Abuse?
God hates oppression and opposes oppressors, and we are called to expose their dark deeds by God’s Word.
God’s Word should not in any way be twisted into saying that Christians should hide abuse or oppression. Jesus came to “set at liberty those who are oppressed” and He calls the church as His people to stand with the suffering and the abused. In recent years, painful examples of abuse have come to... Continue Reading
Pastor Faces Six Years in Prison and $600,000 in Fines for Refusing to Turn People Away From His Church
Pastor Richardson said he has counted the cost and is prepared to suffer.
Pastor Steve Richardson of Faith Presbyterian Church in Tillsonburg was initially charged with two counts of exceeding the 10 person limit for church services that were conducted on February 7 and 14. A pastor from Ontario, Canada faces six years in prison and $600,000 in fines for refusing to turn people away from his church in... Continue Reading
Pondering the Prevalency of Critical Race Theory
Rather than cultivating harmony, it brings forth dysfunction. CRT, in every form, is simply demonic.
What if we refocused our attention on things within the SBC that are actually a huge problem? Say, like, complementarianism and gender roles? If you’ve been watching, there has been talk about this thing—worldview, analytical tool, whatever—called Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is, in my perspective, an anti-Christian worldview that seeks to categorize different... Continue Reading
A Response to Greg Johnson’s Interview: The Gospel and Christian Identity
The frank podcast interview between Drs. Sprinkle and Johnson exposes Johnson’s changed theological paradigm.
Dead in trespasses and sins, the sons of disobedience needed new life—complete with a new heart, a restored will, and a new identity. And that is exactly what we receive in the resurrected Christ. Scripture and Scripture’s Christ do not offer a reparative therapy program; they deliver cosmically-critical, sin-forgiving, freedom-rendering, past-crushing, and utterly-transforming new life... Continue Reading
The PCA Has Fallen into Error, and Can’t Get Back Up: Part 4-General Assembly
I write about the challenges in the PCA to bring the voice of a lay member to debates dominated by elders.
In June last year, PCA agency presidents and permanent committee coordinators published an unsigned letter “in light of the heinous killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the systemic mistreatment of so many other people of color.” And just in the last couple of weeks much of the talk about the PCA’s 48th... Continue Reading
Christianity and Progress (Part Two)
Philosophically naïve, evangelicals go on their merry way thinking that because they preach from the Bible, they are not victims of the corrosive nature of consumerism.
We must not forget that the idea of Progress puts the best face on paganism by which the spirit of the age can seep into the church creating a poisonous ethos if vigilance is not maintained. We must not think that just because we still read our Bible and use Christian speak that we are... Continue Reading
Are Teens Influencing or Being Influenced by the World?
Many older people critique teens and young adults as entitled or lazy without first empathizing with them.
The world looks at pastors and biblical counselors and shakes their collective head at our naivete in encouraging those struggling with depression to read the Bible, pray, and gather in worship and community. We live in a pharmacological age, where we think the primary solution for mental health is found in labs. A good pastor... Continue Reading
These Are 8 Strict Workplace Rules Elon Musk Makes His Tesla Employees Follow
Musk is clearly not a fan of meetings, bureaucracy, hierarchy, or any system that impedes immediate communication.
Don’t let hierarchical structures make things less efficient. “Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the ‘chain of command’. Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.” Elon Musk get a lot done. The 47-year-old entrepreneur and CEO... Continue Reading
Welcome to the Sexual Counter Reformation
And then along came the Christians – especially St Paul and St Augustine – and spoiled the whole party.
So it’s simple. Christians should do in the 21st century, what it did in the 1st: preach the Gospel, care for the poor, avoid all sexual immorality, live in a community of love and fellowship and keep ourselves from being tainted by the world. The Church failed many times (look at the Corinthian church for... Continue Reading
Retrieving an Ancient Sacramental Ecology, Part 3: “On the Dignity of Man” and the New World
Our destiny and the destiny of the Creation are intertwined.
Preference for learning and contempt for institutional religion became extremely popular among early modern thinkers. And, indeed, remains so today. But this belief in the self-autonomy of humanity, this mechanical image of man and creation, has only led to the destruction of both nature and human identity. If its origins are neither found in the... Continue Reading
How the Bad News of Cancel Culture Could Help People Hear the Good News of the Gospel
The demand for justice shows our need for justification.
Since we human beings truly do need justification, we should view this emerging cultural awareness as an opportunity to tell the good news to people who are now ready to hear it. As you’re trying to make sense of what’s happening in our culture and how we should respond as Christians, I highly recommend Thaddeus... Continue Reading
Being the Mother of an LGBTQ+-Identified Child
Despite wanting to fix everything and make it right, we have no power to do so.
I’ve been appealing to God on her behalf for decades already. I have begged the Lord to grant me another child who would know him as Lord and Savior and be one of his very own. What is it like to be a Christian parent of an LGBTQ+-identified child? You may be intimately acquainted... Continue Reading
8 Good Ways God May Be Growing You Through Slow Healing
God is using your circumstances to grow you for your good and his glory.
Don’t let the devil succeed in getting you to despair in the midst of slow healing. Trust that God will not waste one bit of your suffering; instead, believe God’s word that all things will work together for good through everything he allows in your life (Rom. 8:28). Who likes to heal slowly? That’s... Continue Reading
A First-Time Commissioner on SSA and CRT At the PCA General Assembly
A first-time commissioner looks at Same-Sex Attraction and Critical Race Theory with an eye toward voting on these relevant issues at General Assembly.
Lastly, to those thinking this response lacks compassion toward the sexually broken and frustrates our ability to counsel those struggling with SSA, I would suggest that clarity is more compassionate than confusion. Equivocating on homosexual sin hinders our witness. SSA is a heinous sin (Colossians 3:5). It is unacceptable to adopt a gay Christian identity... Continue Reading
You Are Not a Racist to Criticize Critical Race Theory
Dismiss those pretending that if you don't like what's happening in our schools, you're a jingoistic moron who doesn't want kids to learn about racism.
In a dialogue premised on good faith, we can assume that when politicos and parents decry “Critical Race Theory,” what they refer to is the idea of oppression and white perfidy treated as the main meal of an entire school’s curriculum. Since a year ago, CRT-infused members of The Elect, traditionally overrepresented in the... Continue Reading
Communication Breakdown
We struggle to communicate despite having countless media in which to do it.
We would all be a lot better off if we would slow down, be less concerned with ourselves, limit our choices, intentionally connect with others in person, and focus our attention on the things that actually do impact our lives and our community. I’ve been thinking a lot about communication recently, particularly with the... Continue Reading
The Supreme Court Protects Religious Liberty—Barely
The Supreme Court did the bare minimum to protect Catholic Social Services and other faith adherents.
Although today’s opinion allows CSS to continue operating without compromising its faith, that likely won’t be the case for long. Soon, the Court will have to answer if a city can force a religious agency to violate its beliefs if no secular exceptions were provided. Catholic Social Services’ (CSS) 9-0 victory before the Supreme Court today... Continue Reading
Nevada to Pay Church $175k for Legal Battle over COVID-19 Worship Restrictions
The Nevada Board of Examiners unanimously approved the request from the Office of the Attorney General.
Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley filed a lawsuit against Nevada in May 2020, accusing Gov. Steve Sisolak of treating churches worse than secular institutions in the state’s COVID-19 rules. Nevada has agreed to pay a church $175,000 for legal fees incurred during its legal battle against the state’s worship restrictions enacted during the coronavirus pandemic. The Nevada... Continue Reading
The Christian Man’s Calling
Does the message of the cross speak only to the private world of the soul and not to the public world in which men live and work?
The Christian man’s calling will take him into the world, not to identify him with it but so that he may subdue it for the glory of God. What is more, it may be that in this way the gospel will find a point of entry into the lives of our neighbours not many of... Continue Reading
In an Affront to Its Namesake, The Tolkien Society Goes Woke
"The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow."
The only reason to torture Tolkien’s work like this is not to understand it more deeply but to tear it down. And why would modern scholars want to do that? The Tolkien Society, a literary organization founded in 1969 and dedicated to promoting the works of J.R.R Tolkien, has held an annual academic conference... Continue Reading
A PCA Worth Having is a PCA Worth Fighting For
If you hear of wars and rumors of wars in the PCA, do not be alarmed. Important things are at stake; things worth holding; things about which men ought to fight.
They would say it is because Scripture and the Westminster Standards support the idea that SSA is not a disqualification for a minister because SSA is not necessarily sinful, or at least that it is no more heinous than other sins. This is a theological difference. Unless the supporters of Revoice theology prove to have... Continue Reading
It’s All Chocolate
What unites the soaring heights and the plunging depths is the hand of providence.
No secondary cause can operate outside the assent of the primary cause of all things. Satan himself could go no farther than God had allowed, take no action that God himself had not permitted. The sword could fall only where God had decreed, the fire could consume only what God had permitted, the wind could blow... Continue Reading
Antiracism is Anti-Christian
Any form of Christianity that denies the need for a savior is not Christianity.
As a professor of mine used to say, “Don’t hear what I am not saying.” I am not saying that political and social justice is bad. Christians should be the first to advocate for biblical social justice. But even still, that is not the purpose of the church. When you confuse the gospel with the... Continue Reading
Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of the Incarnation
The Incarnation is more mysterious than revisionist theologians imagine.
Why deny impassibility? The reasoning often revolves around the idea that God must have emotions like us or else he is a basically like a stone, that is, an unmoving thing that is not even alive. This assertion should be met with incredulity. Is this really so? God must either be just like us or... Continue Reading
Rescuing 1 Corinthians 7:4 from Abusers
A husband who knows and submits to his Bible will never use 1 Corinthians 7 to control or manipulate his wife.
This mutuality makes clear that Paul is commanding not an attitude insisting on rights, but rather of giving rights. He is calling on married couples to give of themselves for the good of the other, instead of seeking to get their “needs” met. As Dave White summarizes, “God gave us 1 Corinthians 7:1–5 because spouses... Continue Reading
