2018–19 is the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort. We have been observing this anniversary this year, which is the 10th season of Office Hours. Many people know about the so-called Five Points of Calvinism but fewer people know that those . . . Continue reading →
In the period between the early post-apostolic church (e.g., the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD) and the Reformation (beginning in the early 16th century AD) the church came to develop some unbiblical and therefore unhelpful and unhealthy ways of relating creation and . . . Continue reading →
This is Easter Week 2019. On this day, since the late 4th century (393) the Western (Latin) church has remembered that our Lord instituted the sign and seal of the renewal of the covenant of grace, holy communion (the Lord’s Supper). On . . . Continue reading →
John 9 is one of my favorite places in Scripture from which to think about witness. There are few topics that most Christians dread more than witness but they dread it, in part, because they are afraid that questions will arise that . . . Continue reading →
It is always good to talk with Bill Feltner, host of His People on the Pilgrim Radio Network (covering Northern California, Nevada, and Wyoming). Recently Bill called to ask the question: why are there so many church denominations? It is a big . . . Continue reading →
It is always good to talk with Bill Feltner, host of His People on the Pilgrim Radio Network (covering Northern California, Nevada, and Wyoming). Recently Bill called to ask the question: why are there so many church denominations? It is a big . . . Continue reading →
Drew Carey is an American comedian who burst on to the national scene in 1991, when he appeared on the Johnny Carson Show. I saw that appearance and I am still chuckling. Beginning 1995 he starred in The Drew Carey Show for . . . Continue reading →
In the previous essay we saw that the Reformed Churches defended perseverance by grace alone (sola gratia) against the Remonstrant attempt to deny perseverance by making grace resistible and conditional rather than sovereign and free. To see that we looked at the . . . Continue reading →
The problem with even the evangelical, self-imposed fast is that it creates a little law for us to obey, a rule that is within our reach. It is, not surprisingly, a law of our own making, for the law of God — . . . Continue reading →
As Bob Godfrey has well illustrated in his new book on the Canons of Dort, Saving the Reformation, theology of the Synod of Dort was eminently pastoral. Synod was precise in its response to the Remonstrants but it was not technical. The . . . Continue reading →
There is a story in my family about one of the grand parents or great grand parents on the Great Plains and living in a sod house. As the story goes, one day Grandma pulled open drawer and there was a snake. . . . Continue reading →
Years ago I was challenged by a churchgoer that I have no right to critique another church’s worship unless I have personally attended and witnessed for myself what is happening. I took this challenge and visited the local evangelical church in which . . . Continue reading →
Lent as we know it today did not arise out of this biblical understanding of fasting. Rather, Lent came about as a superstitious misunderstanding both of the purpose of fasting in general and the purpose of Christ’s forty-day fast in the wilderness . . . Continue reading →
Raised and educated in liberal Roman Catholic settings, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield earned her PhD from The Ohio State University and was a tenured professor of English and Women’s Studies at Syracuse University where she taught until 2002. In her late 20s she adopted . . . Continue reading →
There has always been a great temptation to append the adjective Christian to whatever one favors in order to justify it. Recently we have seen the phenomenon of so-called “Gay Christians” in an apparent attempt to synthesize homosexuality and Christianity. This attempt . . . Continue reading →
Christians have often been tempted to fall into one of three great errors when it comes to the doctrine of conversion (or regeneration). Historically, the word regeneration has signified two related but distinct ideas: a) Sanctification, i.e., the progressive Spirit-wrought, graciously given . . . Continue reading →
There are about 60 million evangelicals in North America. A good percentage of them are part of a nineteenth-century movement known as Dispensationalism, which was founded by the English clergyman John Nelson Darby (1800–82), who was ordained in the Church of Ireland . . . Continue reading →
In the first part of this essay I critiqued the new Gillette ad mainly from nature (creation). There are certainalienable, natural truths built into the nature of things. One of those is that males are biologically, sexually, psychologically, and socially different from . . . Continue reading →
Gillette, a subsidiary of the multi-national corporation, Procter and Gamble (P&G), has released a controversial new ad ostensibly exercising the new ethos of corporate responsibility to instruct men as to what genuine masculinity is and how they ought to behave. If the . . . Continue reading →
In 1611, Franciscus Gormarus (1563–1641), one of the principals in the controversy surrounding Arminius, resigned his position in theology faculty in the University of Leiden. He was frustrated that, after Arminius’ death, the governors of the University had appointed Conrad Vorstius (1569–1622), . . . Continue reading →
