More than one person has said to me, through the years, that baptism is a “secondary doctrine” and not a doctrine over which the church should be divided. Obviously, confessional Baptists do not agree with such a claim, or else they would . . . Continue reading →
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the . . . Continue reading →
In the course of catching up with goings on in the evangelical world, there was a striking confluence of news stories about men who are no longer pastors, if they ever were. As we scan and digest these stories we should draw . . . Continue reading →
Is the Family Research Council a church? What about Cru, the Gideons International, Voice of the Martyrs, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, Navigators, and World Vision? The Controversy According to a recent story by Daniel Silliman, . . . Continue reading →
Just before our Lord Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he gave the visible, institutional church as twofold mission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, . . . Continue reading →
In our time, however, the tendency is to view the church as means of therapy, merely as a place of fellowship and encouragement, but not as the divinely instituted embassy in which the keys of the Kingdom of God are administered. Viewed . . . Continue reading →
This morning I am thinking of younger American Christians, especially of those who have come of age during the Trump administration. A young person who was 16 when the Trump administration began is now approaching 20 and is perhaps becoming more politically . . . Continue reading →
When I was boy we made frequent pilgrimages to my grandparent’s farm in Southwestern Kansas. That is where I learned to drive, put up fence, buck bales of hay, and chew tobacco. I do not recommend the latter. On the trip, on . . . Continue reading →
Regular readers of this space will know that I am a regular (or perhaps, more properly, an irregular) guest of the Presbycast podcast hosted by Brad Isbell (Chortles Weakly) and Wresbyterian. This is a valuable (if sometimes quirky) resource for the confessional . . . Continue reading →
Doubtless the one of the most significant movements within evangelicalism at the moment is the “emergent” or “emerging churches” movement. The adjectives “emerging” and “emergent” designate different wings of the movement. Generally, the “emergent” wing is more radical and the “emerging” wing a little less radical. Just as frequently, however, in the contemporary rhetoric from both wings of the movement no distinction is made and this essay will speak of the “emerging movement” (hereafter, EM). Like their older evangelical brothers and sisters, the EM also rejects (at least elements of) fundamentalism and revivalism. In their place, they are constructing a cross-traditional, eclectic synthesis. Continue reading →
Rightly done, even if imperfectly, church discipline is an act of love that seeks the restoration of a brother or sister for that person’s well being. It is, after all, “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). He is a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). Continue reading →
I imagine, dear reader, that you and I were both distressed to see Secretary Clinton, as a candidate for the presidency, standing in the pulpit of a Christian congregation during this past election cycle but were we upset for the same reasons? . . . Continue reading →