After a conference address that expounded the doctrine of justification by faith and showed its contemporary importance, the following comments were overheard during a coffee break. Continue reading →
Preaching Sola Fide Better
Books
Review: Reformed Worship By Jonty Rhodes (Blessings Of The Faith Series)
Another book on worship? Well, yes. Though there seems to be a perennially voluminous output on the topic of worship (at least from among the Reformed and Presbyterian wing of Christendom), nevertheless, debates and disagreements on worship seem to persist. Beyond the . . . Continue reading →
Bates’s Recycled Errors
The gospel is central to Christianity. Protestants and Roman Catholics have been reflecting on and debating the gospel’s content for centuries. However, Matthew Bates argues that most of Western Christianity to date—Protestant and Roman Catholic—has completely misunderstood the gospel. In Beyond the Salvation . . . Continue reading →
Review: Swing Low: A History of Black Christianity in the United States By Walter R. Strickland
The earliest church experience I remember was in my hometown of Shreveport, LA. My mother made sure my brothers and I were dressed in our “Sunday best,” then loaded us into the car and drove us to a small white church building that could not have held more than sixty people. Continue reading →
Review: Small Preaching: 25 Little Things You Can Do Now To Become A Better Preacher By Jonathan T. Pennington
Christians are lifelong students of Christ. Disciples are pupils in the school of the great Teacher. We are constantly learning more about Christ, his salvation, and what it means to follow him in faith. Similarly, preachers are lifelong students. There is no . . . Continue reading →
Review: The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? By Jim Davis and Michael Graham
According to recent Gallup polls, American churches are emptier today than they were twenty-five years ago.1 Church membership is falling in large numbers. In fact, over fifty percent of Americans rarely or never attend worship services—and if they do, it is usually . . . Continue reading →
Review: Michael Horton, Theology for Pilgrims on the Way
In Tolkien’s Two Towers Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas attack a white-clad old man, thinking him Saruman. Realizing their error, they apologize to Gandalf saying, “We thought you were Saruman.” Gandalf says, “I am Saruman, or rather Saruman as he should have been.” . . . Continue reading →
Review: Preaching As Reminding: Stirring Memory In An Age Of Forgetfulness By Jeffrey D. Arthurs
I wonder how many books about preaching have been published. Two hundred? Five hundred? It is hard to know for sure, but the number is not small. And although there are numerous books about preaching, most of them are quite similar. They . . . Continue reading →
Hot Off The Press: A Primer On Distinguishing Law And Gospel
Why do we need a primer on distinguishing law and gospel? There are many answers to this question, but for time’s sake, let me give you four reasons a book on the distinction between law and gospel is needed today: 1. It is . . . Continue reading →
Hot Off The Press: First English Translation Of Zanchi’s Commentary On Philippians
In his influence on the Reformed theological tradition, Girolamo Zanchi was a giant. Zanchi was born in Alzano, in northern Italy, in 1516, one year before Luther famously nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg. He received a first-rate . . . Continue reading →
Review: Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, And The Spiritual Mission Of The Church By Alan D. Strange (Part 2)
We pick up again with Alan Strange’s treatment of Hodge in Empowered Witness. There are some questions raised by this work that bear consideration in a review. A reader who is not already in sympathy with the essential argument or who perhaps . . . Continue reading →
Review: Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, And the Spiritual Mission Of The Church By Alan D. Strange (Part 1)
The debate last year over the overture by Evangel Presbytery to the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church in America (overture 12), which was adopted by GA, presented acutely the question of the spirituality of the church. Overture 12 asked GA . . . Continue reading →
Review: To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory From Marx To Marcuse By Carl R. Trueman
Approaching the one-thousand-year-old Oxford Castle and Prison from the east, at the corner of Castle St. and New Rd., the entire crosswalk is emblazoned with rainbow colors, indicating the Oxford city council’s solidarity with the local LGBTQ+ community. Continue reading →
Review: Towards A Reformed Apologetics: A Critique Of The Thought Of Cornelius Van Til By Keith A. Mathison
If you have been in the Presbyterian and Reformed world long, at some point you have likely heard of Cornelius Van Til. He has had an enormous influence. For some people, Reformed and presuppositional apologetics are nearly synonyms. This may be surprising . . . Continue reading →
Review: Reading Genesis By Marilynne Robinson
Within the bookstore of biblical studies, an alarming variety of works rest upon the shelves. Erudite tomes of philology and archeology, collections of sermons, thematic monographs, devotional series, and popular commentaries intermingle like diverse species in a rainforest. Arguably, each type has . . . Continue reading →
Review: Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda By Megan Basham (Part 2)
In the responses to Part 1 of this review, many comments pointed out that I had not engaged much with the negative aspects of Shepherds for Sale. In this second part, I will include reflections on the less precise and more unhelpful . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast For November 10, 2024: Righteous by Design with Rev. Dr. Harrison Perkins
Dr Clark invites Rev. Dr. Harrison Perkins to the Heidelcast to discuss his new book, “Righteous by Design: Covenantal Merit and Adam’s Original Integrity,” part of the Reformed Exegetical Doctrinal Studies series published by Mentor. Continue reading →
Review: Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda By Megan Basham (Part 1)
The controversy surrounding Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale has somewhat died down by now, but the fault lines it has clarified in the Christian media world are still clear. There are those whose suspicions about progressive influences in Christian institutions have been . . . Continue reading →
Review: My Only Comfort: The Heidelberg Catechism For Devotional Reading By Amanda Martin
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) is naturally suited for devotional use. Its devotional qualities have been recognized almost from the instant it was first published. How many people who know virtually nothing else about the catechism know all or part of the first . . . Continue reading →
Review: What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church By Gavin Ortlund
Not many dates are worthy of remembrance over a century-and-a-half later. The beginning or end of a war or the death of a nation’s leader might be on people’s radar for a few decades, maybe a century, but eventually the slow decay . . . Continue reading →