New Resources Pages On Common Grace And The Sacred/Secular Distinction

These are contentious issues but the popular discussion of them, including some ecclesiastical publications, is not always well-informed by the history of Christian thought. These two resource pages are composed partly out of the HB archives and partly of bibliography. Both sets . . . Continue reading →

Grammar Guerrilla: Pronoun Primer

Guerilla-Gorilla

In yet another indicator that the West is collapsing, Webster’s Dictionary has apparently named they, used to designate a particular, non-gendered person, the word of 2019. This seems to call for a quick refresher on basic grammar: There are two kinds of . . . Continue reading →

The Reformation Of Vocation

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 →

Same-Sex Attraction Is Not A Means Of Grace Or Why We Distinguish Nature And Grace

Jeffrey Stivason has a helpful interaction with an August 2018 essay by Wesley Hill in which Hill seeks to justify the Revoice Conference, held last July (2018), and in which justifies his conclusion that he has an immutable same-sex attraction. Stivason notes that . . . Continue reading →

What Passion City Gets Right And Wrong About The Sabbath

The last time we saw Atlanta Pastor Louie Giglio it was January 2013 and he was embroiled in controversy because he had been invited by President Obama to participate in his second inauguration. It had been discovered that Giglio held the biblical . . . Continue reading →

Nature, Gender, Rage, The Emperor’s Clothes, And Evangelical Docetism

The controversy over transgendered bathrooms is really a symbol of the success of subjectivism. Hans Christian Anderson (1805–75) anticipated this crisis in the early 19th century and told us a story about the “Emperor’s New Clothes.” If ever there was a parable for this age, this is it. In it people are told repeatedly to deny their sense experience in favor of political correctness. A small boy, however, unaware of the potential socio-economic consequences (or the rage of the LGBT lobby) of telling the truth, speaks truth to power to the everlasting shame of the adults. So it is in our time. The Transgender Emperor has the wrong clothes. Continue reading →

Strangers And Aliens (13c): Living Among The Pagans (1 Peter 3:1–6)

1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →

The Making Of Lawrence Phillips

There must be many ex-football players or ex-athletes and at least a few famous athletes who have ended their athletic careers by committing crimes. Most of those cases simply fall into obscurity but not that of Lawrence Phillips (1975–2016), who was a . . . Continue reading →

Heidelberg 104: Authority And Submission

In the fall Adam chose to exercise autonomy, to rebel against God.  Since the fall humans have carried on Adam’s ignominious tradition. Cain rebelled against worshiping God truly and, in a jealous rage, murdered his brother who did worship God truly. We, . . . Continue reading →

Heidelberg 103: The Christian Sabbath (1)

If there was a time when the church needed to stop its business, to rest, to worship, and to set aside time for the care of the poor in their midst, that time is now. At no time in its history has . . . Continue reading →

Heidelberg 91: What Are Good Works? (1)

he objectively, clearly revealed moral law as the baseline for Christian ethics is essential to Christian living and Christian liberty. James calls it “the law of liberty” (James 1:25) because it frees us from the tyranny of human opinion. It does not answer every question (it does not intend or claim to answer every question) but it is an essential starting place. What must a Christian do in response to God’s grace and in union with Christ? Love God with all his faculties and his neighbor as himself. Continue reading →