Recent events in Canterbury and Rome underscore this year’s significant anniversaries. I am not thinking here of the obvious one: the 1700th year since the first ecumenical council set in motion the creedal discussions that culminated in the Nicene Creed of 381. . . . Continue reading →
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Why The Nicene Creed And Why One God?
This year, the Nicene Creed is 1700 years old, and here we are still paying attention to it. By any measure, that is an impressive achievement. The number of historical and cultural artifacts to which we still pay attention and which we . . . Continue reading →
Westminster Divine John Lightfoot Contra Continuationism
Of the same cognizance were those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, evidences of Jesus his being the Messias, and means of conveying the gospel through the world, and when both these were well established then those gifts ceased for ever. Read more» John . . . Continue reading →
They Don’t Care Because He Fights
He also addresses criticism of his occasional use of profane or vulgar words. “I deny that I use any language outside the clear parameters of Scripture, and further deny that my words are unnecessarily provocative,” he writes. In one well-known instance, he . . . Continue reading →
I’m Sure It Will Be Fine
What was once a vice relegated to the shadows has, with stunning speed, become the wallpaper of American life. We are told this new era of legalized sports gambling is merely a form of “fan engagement.” Turn on a broadcast, and you . . . Continue reading →
Ancient Christian Opposition To Abortion And Infanticide
You must not waver with regard to your decisions. “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.” You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not abort a child nor, again, commit infanticide. You must not withhold . . . Continue reading →
Because Of Christ’s Bodily Ascension Christ Has Instituted Word, Sacraments, And Prayer
We cannot take direct hold of Christ himself in a physical sense because he is bodily in heaven. We are not directly surrounded by his physical kingdom in the new creation yet, even though he reigns in heaven. So, his promises must . . . Continue reading →
Westminster Divine Thomas Ford Against Continuationism
I suppose no sober man will now pretend to any such extraordinary gift, which ceased in the church long since, as the gift of tongues, and other effects of the Spirit extraordinary. Continue reading →
Trueman: It’s Not Big Eva Now But Gig Eva
Many years ago, I coined the term “Big Eva.” While today the term is used as a quick and lazy smear for any well-known figures of a previous generation that a particular X-man happens to dislike, at the time I intended it . . . Continue reading →
Young Men Seduced Online To Murderous Nihilism
Early on January 1, 2025, as everyone else in Los Angeles was still ringing in the new year, Jonathan Rinderknecht hiked into the Santa Monica Mountains and, with his cigarette lighter, allegedly set some paper or brush or both alight. The flames . . . Continue reading →
The Sweet Exchange
We exist in a vacuous epoch of lies where the most hardened hearts are eclipsed by reality due to their sin. The ability to press objective truth with a subjective lens has taken over and caused a stir on true morality from . . . Continue reading →
The Root Of Wokeness: Feminization
In 2019, I read an article about Larry Summers and Harvard that changed the way I look at the world. The author, writing under the pseudonym “J. Stone,” argued that the day Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard University marked a turning point . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: The British Government Was Making A Point
Back in the U.K., the arrest of Linehan for his tweets was another shocking escalation of the culture war. To those unfamiliar with his work, he was the writer of Father Ted, a cleverly absurd Irish comedy that brought the tradition of dark Gaelic humor, . . . Continue reading →
Our Greatest Affinity Is Not Blood And Soil But Grace And Truth
Not only is the Church the catholic (meaning universal) communion of saints, but we are called specifically a distinct race and kingdom. Peter writes to the churches in the diaspora: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, . . . Continue reading →
Stott On Leaving The Pulpit With A Sense Of Failure
I confess that in the pulpit I am often seized with ‘communication frustration,’ for a message burns within me, but I am unable to convey to others what I am thinking, let along feeling. And seldom if ever do I leave the . . . Continue reading →
Dueling Jubilees: How The Calvinists And Lutherans First Celebrated The Reformation
Interestingly, it was Calvinists, not Lutherans, who in 1617 first proposed a centennial marking Luther’s attack on indulgences. Alarmed by an increasingly assertive Tridentine Catholic Church and lacking legal status in the Holy Roman Empire, early in that year church and royal . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: The Recovery Of The Ten Commandments Starts In Church And Home
But how can Christians champion the Ten Commandments as a moral standard if they themselves do not obey them? Yes, the Incarnation transforms the Decalogue. All Christian churches agree on that in principle. But most Christians disregard the Commandments without reflection and . . . Continue reading →
From The Reading Revolution To The Counter-Reading Revolution
It was one of the most important revolutions in modern history—and yet no blood was spilled, no bombs were thrown, and no monarch was beheaded. What happened was this: In the middle of the 18th century, huge numbers of ordinary people began . . . Continue reading →
5 Reformation Doctrines That Still Transform The Church
By most accounts, the Reformation began when a young monk challenged ecclesiastical and academic authorities to debate a controversial practice that had developed in the late-medieval period. Why do we continue to remember it roughly five hundred years later? Waving off Martin . . . Continue reading →
Honesty Is The Best Policy
I don’t like writing about this, but I like ecclesial lawlessness even less. And I don’t seek this stuff—it is thrust upon me. Is there any reason unordained persons should lay hands on ruling elders being ordained in a PCA church? Is . . . Continue reading →