Editorial Note Regarding The “Shepherds” Post

A member of the Presbytery of the Southeast (OPC), who is also a member of the committee, called to ask me to remove the quotation of Rev. Mahaffy’s post. He argues that though the words quoted were said by the member, on the floor of presbytery, in open session, there is more to the story and that presbytery is addressing these issues judicially.

I continue to affirm Rev. Mahaffy’s sentiments about the role and nature of shepherds in Christ’s church and will be addressing this more fully in future.

Pray for your local confessional Presbyterian/Reformed congregation, that it might be neither “fundamentalist” nor “progressive” but faithful to God’s Word as we confess it in the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, and the Westminster Standards.

Resources

Why Not Stick To History? Short Answer: The Twofold Kingdom (Duplex Regimen)

A popular political commentator published a book a few years ago titled Shut Up And Sing, in which she argued that famous athletes and other entertainers should keep their political and cultural opinions to themselves and not seek to use their fame to . . . Continue reading →

Surprising Comfort

…Does personal confidence that we will receive everlasting rewards for our works square with all the biblical data? To be very clear, the question here is not about whether we will receive those rewards, but about the issue of personal confidence that . . . Continue reading →

Brooks Describes The Problem But Does He Answer The Central Question: Why?

During most of the 20th century, through depression and wars, Americans expressed high faith in their institutions. In 1964, for example, 77 percent of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do the right thing most or all of the time. Then came the last two moral convulsions. In the late 1960s and ’70s, amid Vietnam and Watergate, trust in institutions collapsed. By 1994, only one in five Americans said they trusted government to do the right thing. Then came the Iraq War and the financial crisis and the election of Donald Trump. Institutional trust levels remained pathetically low. Continue reading →

What The Court-Packing Debate Teaches Us About Defining The Adjective Reformed

Since about last Friday, the expression “court packing” has received a marvelous new definition. From the “things you should have learned in school” file, it was president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Thirty-Second President of the United States, who, in 1937, threatened to . . . Continue reading →

On The King James Only Movement, The Majority Text, And Text Criticism

Preface As a young Christian, as I was beginning to study Greek and to learn the Reformed theology, piety, and practice, I could see the textual apparatus in the footnotes of my copy of the Greek New Testament but I could not . . . Continue reading →

Back In Print! Ames On The Heidelberg Catechism And Caspar Olevianus On The Apostles’ Creed

William Ames, A Sketch of the Christian’s Catechism. Classic Reformed Theology. Todd Rester, trans. (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2008). Ames (1576–1633) exposits a particular text of Scripture that supports the main thoughts for a given Lord’s Day in the Heidelberg Catechism . . . Continue reading →

Critical Theory Seeks To Suppress Dissent In America

Loudoun County Schools

One of the several reasons that Americans ought to be concerned about the inroads being made by Critical Theory (e.g., Critical Race Theory, Critical Legal Theory) into American life is its fundamentally anti-American view of free speech. Rod Dreher highlights the latest . . . Continue reading →

New Resource Page: On Abortion

The sixth commandment of God’s holy moral law says, “You shall not murder.” Christians have always understood this to prohibit abortion, i.e., the unjust taking of a human life in utero. The Didache (c. AD 114), an early Christian document testifying to . . . Continue reading →