Two days ago (Monday, 21 June 2010) was the summer solstice (from Latin sol [sun] + sistere [to stand]). The AP reports that “Thousands of New Agers and neo-pagans danced and whooped in delight Monday as a bright early morning sun rose . . . Continue reading →
Christian Life
Dreher On The Woke/Anti-Semitic Right
I knew that the left had succumbed to the soft totalitarianism of wokeness. It was part of the reason that I moved to the former Eastern bloc country of Hungary—not to escape wokeness so much as the fact that, through the research . . . Continue reading →
Kuyper And The Moral Shift In Society
We are living in an age of profound cultural shift. Up until the early twenty-first century, Western history was dominated by a form of Christianity that was legally established and culturally honored. While not everyone was a Christian, being a Christian was . . . Continue reading →
The Ascension Of Christ: A Primer
Every week, in both our morning and evening services, our congregation confesses or sings one of the historic creeds of the church before we receive the Lord’s Supper. Sometimes it is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed or the Apostles’ Creed, and other times it . . . Continue reading →
Concerning Scandals And Scandalizers
Richard Nixon (1913–94) was President of the United States from 1968–74. He resigned from office in disgrace because of his part in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. By today’s standards, the Watergate scandal might be considered small potatoes. Nixon himself, who . . . Continue reading →
Calvin’s Prayer That The Lord Might Move Us To Ask For Forgiveness
Now let us prostrate ourselves before the majesty of our good God, recognizing the infinite faults of which we are guilty, praying that it will please him to make us feel them more and more, so that we may ask him to . . . Continue reading →
It’s Too Easy To Think The Worst
The importance of Christian charity was first impressed upon me in university by a friend named James. He was the older brother of a close friend, doing graduate studies in history. We were involved together in an evangelism project on our university . . . Continue reading →
Fleeing Biblicism: Away From Self, Unto Christ (Part 2)
Depending upon what purpose the biblicist has as they approach the text of Scripture, they could either wind up feeling victorious when their enemies are defeated (whether persons or ideologies), or they could end up feeling anxious and confused when their same interpretive method leads (if they would be consistent) to things like open theism. Continue reading →
Fleeing Biblicism: Away From Self, Unto Christ (Part 1)
Have you ever heard a Christian say something along the lines of, “Scripture destroys that argument!” At the best of times, this appears to be an excited proclamation of the Scripture’s power—indeed, the power of God and his truth over all things. . . . Continue reading →
Dear Pastor, Do Not Be Surprised By Troublemakers In The Congregation
The pastor need not be surprised if he finds troublers in his church. The discovery of such persons among the professed people of God sometimes shocks ministers, especially inexperienced ones, and discourages them, and sometimes leads them unwisely to give up their . . . Continue reading →
A Son Remembers His Spiritual Father
Dr. Rod Rosenbladt died in Christ today after a brief illness. There was no one else like him. J. I. Packer once told him, “Rod, you not only possess Luther’s theology, you embody the man.” No one has influenced my course in . . . Continue reading →
Must We Forgive The Impenitent?
Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things required of us. You might almost say it goes against human nature. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” That was Alexander Pope’s conclusion in “An Essay on Criticism.” [1] Christians generally know they . . . Continue reading →
Christians Love Their Enemies
One of the distinctives of Christianity is the call to behave otherworldly. Revenge is a human instinct and something most people would say is a natural right. Christ tells Christians to turn the other cheek and let God take care of vengeance . . . Continue reading →
Review: The Cure for Unjust Anger By John Downame, Edited by Brian Hedges
Among the sins you and I both have wrestled with is the sin of unjust anger. When faced with injury or injustice—whether real or perceived, whether against our person, someone else, or some group of people—we have been moved to respond in . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: Christ Included Children Into New Covenant
Because to infants belongs the kingdom of heaven according to the declaration of Christ: “Little children were brought unto Christ, that he should put his hands on them and pray” (Mt. 19:13*). Since the disciples would repel them, Christ said, “Suffer little . . . Continue reading →
Vos On Perserverance
If someone Reformed is asked on what his perseverance in the state of grace rests, then he will not answer, “On something in me, on the power and the capacity for withstanding of the new life that I possess,” but, “Solely on . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: We Baptize Infants On The Basis Of The Covenant
Not regeneration, faith, or repentance, much less our assumptions pertaining to them, but only the covenant of grace gave people, both adults and children, the right to baptism. Continue reading →
Warfield: Covenant Theology Is Fundamental To Reformed Theology
The architectonic principle of the Westminster Confession is supplied by the schematization of the Federal theology, which had obtained by this time in Britain, as on the Continent, a dominant position as the most commodious mode of presenting the corpus of Reformed doctrine (so . . . Continue reading →
The Fruit Of The Spirit: The Eighth Fruit—Self-Control (Part 2)
In a moment, I will point out a few places in Scripture that talk about the layers of self-control we began talking about in part one. Continue reading →
Warfield: God Placed The Children Of Believers In The Church
But now, having run through these various arguments, to what conclusion do we come? Are they sufficient to set aside our reasoned conviction, derived from some such argument as Dr. Hodge’s, that infants are to be baptized? A thousand times no. So . . . Continue reading →