Since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has sent well more than $1 trillion to schools with the express purpose of closing the gaps between the highest and lowest performers. Today, those gaps are as wide as they have ever been, . . . Continue reading →
HeidelQuotes
Colquhoun: The Law Doesn’t Say “Try” But “Do”
Many flatter themselves that their state is good and their salvation sure because they do not live securely in a course of sin but, on the contrary, endeavor to keep the commandments as well as they can and because God is so . . . Continue reading →
Some Kentucky Presbyterians Opposed Slavery
John Rankin (1793–1886) was another towering figure among Southern Presbyterian abolitionists, whose work in both Kentucky and Ohio had a profound impact on the movement to end slavery. Born in Tennessee, Rankin was raised in a devout Presbyterian family that instilled in . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: Pelagius Scatters Flowers On Graves
The difference between Augustine and Pelagius, Calvin or Castellio, Gomarus and Arminius is not that the latter were that much more gentle, loving, and tenderhearted than the former. On the contrary, it arises from the fact that the former accepted Scripture in . . . Continue reading →
What Is Love?
The book begins with one question: “What is love?” Our culture has its answers, but what does the Bible say? Borg then proceeds to answer many other questions we might ask. These include: does God love everyone? What about the love we . . . Continue reading →
Chrysostom: We Are Pilgrims
The first virtue, yea the whole of virtue, is to be a stranger to this world, and a sojourner, and to have nothing in common with things here, but to hang loose from them, as from things strange to us; As those . . . Continue reading →
The Church Of The Nones
Twenty minutes outside downtown Atlanta, Vinings Lake sits along a humming thoroughfare connecting Veterans Memorial Highway to the affluent suburbs north of the city. With its white steeple and brick exterior, it could easily be mistaken for another Southern Baptist church adorning . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: The Proper Preaching Of The Law Is Not Legalistic
…a minister of the gospel may often preach the law to his hearers and yet not deserve to be called a legal preacher. He cannot preach the gospel faithfully and successfully unless he preaches the law in subservience to it. If he . . . Continue reading →
Machen Rejected Sunday Football But Not On Theocratic Grounds
Machen wrote a letter to a notable politician on April 20, 1933. Just as he saw what was coming with fascism in the 1930s in Europe, so Machen saw the encroaching menace of the National Football League, which held its first championship . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Prophet Of School Choice
While Machen’s achievements are chiefly theological, he wrote and spoke extensively about education, where he observed some of the deteriorating effects of liberalism. One hundred years of policy and research have proven Machen prescient in his views on education policy, which can . . . Continue reading →
Does Being Faithful Mean Being Busy?
There is a trend I have been observing over the last ten years or so in our Reformed circles, and now I have been hearing various voices from “the pew” expressing concern in this particular area. That is of a call for . . . Continue reading →
Counting To One And The Trinity
Western culture today parades its rebellion against nature and our Creator, against the goodness of bearing God’s image as men and women. Christians must defend the Bible’s teaching on God’s design for both sexes and how each complements the other. Many, however, . . . Continue reading →
What Would You Give To Win Your Neighbor?
Perhaps one of the reasons we have a difficult time reaching our neighbors with the gospel of Christ is that we are unwilling to sacrifice anything for their sake, breaking down relational and cultural walls that make it hard for them to . . . Continue reading →
Trueman: What We Can Learn From Confessional Lutherans
Toward the end of the seminar, one pastor asked what I thought confessional Lutheranism could offer to the church catholic at this moment in time. My answer was threefold. …I went on to say that confessional Lutheranism, more specifically, has two particularly . . . Continue reading →
Colquhoun: The Moral Law Is The Rule Of Life For Believers
The law as a rule of life is also of great use to believers. … Now in this point of view, it serves in the following ways, under the illuminating influences of the Holy Spirit: …To show them how far they are . . . Continue reading →
But Even Tax Collectors
The ordo amoris isn’t a justification for cruelty, nor does it exempt us from loving strangers, enemies, etc. Loving your own is natural and necessary, but even tax collectors and sinners do that. Grace doesn’t destroy nature, and natural affection must be . . . Continue reading →
Ferguson: Our Identity In Christ The Key To Putting Sin To Death
My friend—a younger minister—sat down with me at the end of a conference in his church and said: “Before we retire tonight, just take me through the steps that are involved in helping someone mortify sin.” We sat talking about this for . . . Continue reading →
Fesko: When The Church Is Not Like Costco
It seems like far too many people treat relationships of all sorts as being disposable. As soon as they hit a rough patch of any sort they decide to pull up stakes, move on, and find a new relationship. This is especially . . . Continue reading →
Sibbes: Preaching Must Be Of Nothing But Christ
Preaching must be of Christ. Some may question, “But must nothing be preached but Christ?” Yes, nothing but Christ, or that which tends to Christ. Whatever is done in preaching to humble men, it is to raise them up again in Christ. . . . Continue reading →
Luther: We Pray For Trivial Things And Neglect God’s Majesty
We too are in the habit of praying for trivial and insignificant things. When we pray, we don’t take into account the great majesty of God. If God wanted to give us only petty and superficial things, he wouldn’t have given us . . . Continue reading →