Embarrassed by the Book of Job
The book of Job is a jolt to reality and one we often shove to the back of our theology, if not the back of our Bible.
A Christianity sans the book of Job is not Christianity. Heaven is not on earth yet. Death is the last enemy and it is yet to be vanquished. Our lives will be filled with varying degrees of heartache and pain. I am not saying that a Christian can never have a life without deep trauma... Continue Reading
Should Public Schools Ban Critical Race Theory?
The idea of banning ideas should make any American shudder.
If you are reading this, I suspect you are disturbed by an ideology that segregates people by race; that insists on a racial hierarchy in which entire racial groups are monolithically good or bad; that does away with race-blind tests in the name of progress; and that insists that any inequality of outcome is evidence... Continue Reading
The Burning of the Wooden Shoes
Stuffed within the burning shoes were the very confessions that defined her, resulting in the loss of a biblical and confessional identity.
The pressures being laid upon Reformed churches are many. As a pastor, I have felt the pressure to conform to the American way of church. Among the evangelicals in our community, our Reformed church is pegged as the strict church in town doing things that nobody else does. Downgrading those Reformed practices that are the... Continue Reading
The Value of Human Life
Moses taught the Israelites something radical in their day. They were as valuable as the most powerful king in the world.
God’s image has failed to carry out its mission so many times that you might think that God would decide to fulfill His plan without us. But He did not. Rather, God the Father sent His eternal Son to become a human being and to complete our mission as one of us. “For as by... Continue Reading
Embarrassed by the Gospel
Worship that is merely relevant to the felt needs of the hour is always irrelevant to the real needs of eternity.
This document is assisted catechetical suicide, Anglican-style—one that in its squirming embarrassment about Christian exclusivity buries the gospel under a pile of inclusive blather, and squanders the great heritage of Anglican liturgy and hymnody. One of the most striking features of the contemporary Christian scene is embarrassment. Many of the leading traditional institutions of... Continue Reading
Perspicuity and the Pastor
The doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture ought to be a treasured truth for pastors in particular.
A recurring theme in the pages of Scripture is the connection between light and truth (Ps 43:3 (“O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me”); John 3:21 (“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light”)). Scripture, having originated with God, is truth. And Scripture is truth which has been... Continue Reading
The Government Isn’t God
I’m concerned some Christian leaders will pressure other Christians to get vaccinations so the government will reward us with our freedom to worship.
Many of us have given the government license to believe they can usurp God. We sometimes speak and act like all things belong to Caesar. But God doesn’t exist to serve the government. The government exists to serve God. One of the false gods with the most followers and the most committed worshippers today... Continue Reading
When My Quadriplegia Ends: What Makes Me Long for Heaven
I may have felt unlovely, but the love in Ken’s face washed it all away. I was the pure and perfect bride. That’s what he saw, and that’s what changed me.
Yes, I ache for my Savior to speed his return, but I am keenly aware that “the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient . . . not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). If in all my afflictions... Continue Reading
The Reformation Solas: Solus Christus
What Christ accomplished was a full salvation, as opposed to a partial salvation, and therefore He alone can be trusted.
John Owen, near the end of his meditations on The Glory of Christ, says that “the way whereby we may be made partakers of [present sanctifying] grace, is by a steady view of the glory of Christ.”[4] It is Jesus now, ascended high into glory and yet still our sympathetic priest, from whom we receive mercy... Continue Reading
The Regulative Principle and Perfection
His ministry really doesn’t need our improvement.
The regulative principle teaches that in worship we aren’t just to avoid unbiblical practices; we are to avoid any practices which we’re not specifically, positively told to do by Christ. Underlying this is a conviction about the perfection of what Jesus Christ, our great high priest, is doing for us in heaven. If you play with... Continue Reading
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