One of the oldest and most repeated religious questions goes like this: “Why does God allow evil to happen?” Or it may sound like this: “Why is there evil in the world?” These types of questions fall under the subject of theodicy. . . . Continue reading →
I am not suggesting that American Presbyterians of the eighteenth century would approve of the political arrangement of the twenty-first century. Surely, in many respects they would not. They assumed an overwhelmingly Protestant nation where Catholics and (more so) Jews could be . . . Continue reading →
In our previous installments in this series, we began by considering the great aversion and discomfort our culture has when it comes to death. We noted the various unhealthy, unbiblical, and unhelpful coping mechanisms that are often employed in the face of . . . Continue reading →
It is truly lamentable to observe how many young men and women, of whom better things might have been expected, fall away into semi-Romanism in the present day, under the attraction of a highly ornamental and sensuous ceremonial. Flowers, crucifixes, processions, banners, . . . Continue reading →
In our previous article in this series, we observed that our culture is not one that likes to think about death. Culturally, as others have pointed out, we have done away with the traditional churchyard. No longer are we forced to walk . . . Continue reading →
But I did feel the swell of hormones that flooded my system for the next three months, bringing me to lows I didn’t know existed, sweeping me through endless forests of my own fatigued emotions. I felt the fraying of my mind . . . Continue reading →
A pastor is a human being who has been redeemed by God’s grace and called to serve the Lord as an ordained minister. As a human, he will need and want friends. It is a highly unrealistic expectation to think that pastors . . . Continue reading →
There is still another area in which the Reformed view of the law is influenced by the idea of the covenant. Even after the fall, the law retains something of its covenantal form. The law was not included in the federal relationship . . . Continue reading →
Kevin DeYoung, moderator of the 52nd General Assembly, has selected the elders to serve on the Ad Interim Study Committee on Christian Nationalism. The committee will consist of three teaching elders, four ruling elders, and two advisory members. The committee members are . . . Continue reading →
To be fair, congregational singing has been under assault for a century or more. The “contemporary” worship of 100 years ago in some P&R churches already suffered from invasive species propagated by Oxford Movement’s high-church, Anglo-Catholic tendencies. Low churches got high. Organs . . . Continue reading →
Now, as they did us injustice in that, it appears to me that you ought to have been too reasonable and humane to suffer us to be mixed up and implicated in their follies. One of them, of whom I had heard . . . Continue reading →
Regular readers of this space will know that evangelical elements of the Anglican tradition have played a significant role in my spiritual development. As a very young Christian the first piece of Christian literature of any substance that I read was John . . . Continue reading →
One of the most common critiques of Thomas Aquinas to be found in contemporary Protestant theology and apologetics is that Aquinas either outright denies the noetic effects of sin (that is, the effect of original sin on the human intellect) or at least minimizes . . . Continue reading →
The first chapters of Calvin’s “Institutes” are taken up with a comprehensive exposition of the sources and guarantee of the knowledge of God and divine things (Book I. chs. i.-ix.). A systematic treatise on the knowledge of God must needs begin with . . . Continue reading →
Worship is a vital part of the Christian life, in fact, the most important facet of our life. It is how both the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms direct us on what our proper end is: “Man’s chief end is to glorify . . . Continue reading →
In 2008, I commented on a post by the Aquila Report: “The PCUSA continues its statistical decline. As a firm believer in Scottish revivals I might be tempted to take this as a sign of health but, in this case, it doesn’t . . . Continue reading →
What is God doing in creation? What is He aiming to achieve? The answer shapes how we think about what the world needs, what the church’s purpose is, and what it means for Christians to live on mission. The answer also has . . . Continue reading →
The mission of American Reformer (a project that fancies itself the brains of a movement that seems to major in morphing and losing its mind) sounds tame and broad enough: American Reformer’s mission is to promote a vigorous Christian approach to the . . . Continue reading →
I’ve written before about how Presbyterians changed their views on the civil magistrate and how this shift is reflected in the American revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF). When the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America adopted the . . . Continue reading →
At first glance, the flood narrative may seem like a simple tale of an ancient deluge or even God’s love for animal life. That was what I was taught growing up in the church. However, it’s so much more than that. When . . . Continue reading →