The Church Weighed, Measured, and Found Wanting
We should use this Covid experience as our refining fire in order that we may discover where our deficiencies lie and make the necessary changes.
The weakened state of the church is the direct consequence of the church’s actions during Covid. If we hope that God restores the fortunes of her people it is incumbent upon us to first take stock of our actions during the pandemic, repent, and then consider how we might acquit ourselves henceforth. To the extent that the... Continue Reading
The Anatomy of Doubt
Authentic doubt has the power to sort out and clarify the difference between the certain and the uncertain, the genuine and the spurious.
The order of the process to destroy doubt is crucial. For example, the miracles of the Bible cannot and were never designed to prove the existence of God. The very possibility of a miracle requires that there first be a God who can empower it. In other words, it is not the Bible that proves... Continue Reading
Weeping for the Prodigal
How do Christian parents pray for straying covenant children?
Heart sorrow is to drive the ones praying for lost children back to where they need to go, to their only hope. To the gospel, where they remember that Christ was separated and cursed by God so that His people could be brought back to Him. Surely each anguished tear of the grieving Christian parent,... Continue Reading
Lex Talionis and the New Testament
Jesus and Lex Talionis
The simple truth is, we must ask this question and think carefully about it: What aspects or parts of OT law carry over into the NT, and which do not? Those of differing theological persuasions will answer this question differently. Theonomists, or Christian reconstructionists, for example will see almost all of the law carrying through,... Continue Reading
Allergies, Anyone? The Trinity Does Not Fit Into Your Tiny Box of History
Unless you understand who God is apart from you, you will never understand the importance of what God has done for you.
As Jesus claims repeatedly to be the way to salvation in John’s Gospel, he will also back up his right to make that claim, especially when the religious leaders question his authority, by appealing to his eternal origin from the Father. It is only because he is begotten by the Father from all eternity that... Continue Reading
Why Did Jesus Forgive the Paralytic Before Healing Him?
Christ who died for us is the one who is in authority over our healing and over our forgiveness.
Forgiveness and healing are combined in this narrative because they are combined in the authority of Jesus. That is the point that Mark wants us to see. This isn’t meant to give us a point about the importance of forgiveness over against the importance of physical healing (you can make that point elsewhere, but it’s not here).... Continue Reading
God Loves Through Human Love
How Grace Breeds Generosity
Grace, in its chief manifestation, is the gift of a person (Titus 2:11–14), our incarnate, crucified, and ascended Savior. To receive all the benefits that this gift of grace achieved, we must, as Calvin argues, receive his person: “as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he... Continue Reading
Rescuing Reverence – 4
What is the fundamental obstacle to knowing and loving God?
Pride obscures our relationship with God by treating God as smaller than he actually is, and treating ourselves as greater than we actually are. Pride is a distortion of reality. God can no more work with pride than reason with a lunatic. Pride is a kind of moral madness, where we see ourselves as gods... Continue Reading
Lex Talionis and the Old Testament
How should we understand "an eye for an eye"?
We do not have too many OT passages telling us that the death penalty in particular and these ‘eye for eye’ penalties in general were carried out. And it seems monetary compensation may have been a more usual way to proceed, and not tit for tat corporal punishment. Most folks have heard of the... Continue Reading
Scripture Is the Sufficient Standard (1689 1:1)
All things pertaining to the Christian faith are found in the canon of Scripture.
Everyone wants to hear directly from God. Everyone wants the comfort of having a message from the all-powerful creator of the universe. The good news is that God’s words have been preserved for you. God has committed His words “wholly into writing.” “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of... Continue Reading
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