Homosexuality is before us as a cultural, theological, spiritual, and ecclesiastical issue as never before. In recent years the President of the United States has declared that he has had a change of heart about homosexual marriage. Where, in 2008, he campaigned . . . Continue reading →
For some bible readers the Scriptures seem to be bits of unrelated material. For those who memorize Scripture from flash cards, a good thing to be sure, Scripture can seem disconnected. Others read Scripture as if it were entirely united around God’s . . . Continue reading →
Few questions heat up the Evangelical and Reformed worlds in North America quite as quickly as the question of how to relate biblical law to contemporary civil life. A significant number of American evangelicals think that the biblical laws of the Mosaic . . . Continue reading →
Christians, perhaps American Christians more than most, frequently say that they want pastors and teachers to be “practical.” They say that want to know how to apply the Christian faith to daily life. To that end Christians spend much time and lots . . . Continue reading →
You may know Bob Godfrey as a mild-mannered seminary president and author of several books (and a recent video series on church history) but most Lord’s Days he transforms himself into the teacher of the Adult Sunday School class at the Escondido United Reformed . . . Continue reading →
In 1968 American culture was roiled by a long, increasingly unpopular war in Southeast Asia. It was rocked by massive anti-war protests, the hippie movement, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It was shocked by the assassination of two leading American figures, . . . Continue reading →
The Book of Psalms was once not only the Songs of Israel but it was also the songbook of the Christian church. One of the parts of the Hebrew Scriptures most frequently quoted in the New Testament is Psalm 110. The early . . . Continue reading →
Scripture has a great deal to say about wisdom. The words wisdom or wise occur about 400 times in the Bible. Yet, both in and outside the visible church, ours is not an age that is characterized by that same interest in . . . Continue reading →
Foolishness has been a part of the human condition since the fall but it was not that way in the beginning. We were made to be wise by knowing and obeying God. After the fall, by grace alone, through faith alone, we . . . Continue reading →
Americans believe in and really like the extraordinary. We speak frequently—and not without some reason—of American exceptionalism. Since the 1720s Evangelical Christianity in America has been dominated by a desire to see and experience the extraordinary whether that be the attempt to . . . Continue reading →
The Westminster Standards are a collection of churchly documents, a confession of faith, and two catechisms drafted by an assembly of pastors and theologians called to meet to provide a confession and catechisms that would unify a nation divided internally by civil . . . Continue reading →
Few figures haunt the history and imagination of the West like John Calvin. In 2009 Geneva celebrated the 500th anniversary of his birth and yet late modern Europeans were clearly uncomfortable celebrating a figure whom they regarded as backward and unenlightened. Yet, . . . Continue reading →
The United States has experienced several great waves of immigration in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. At this writing the United States is experiencing another such wave, this time of Spanish-speaking immigrants. This language-cultural group is noticeably under represented in confessional . . . Continue reading →
What happens to WSC students after they graduate? Most of them go on to become pastors in confessional Presbyterian and Reformed congregations. Most of them spend the rest of their lives in faithful service to Christ, preaching the gospel, administering the sacraments, . . . Continue reading →
In the 16th and 17th centuries, indeed, from the 2nd century until the 20th century there was little question among Christians whether God has revealed his moral law in nature and in the conscience. In the 20th century, however, that verity came to . . . Continue reading →
Prayer is not as easy as it looks, especially when we are completely confused about those things for which we ought to ask. That was the situation in which the disciples found themselves. When they said to our Lord, “teach us how . . . Continue reading →
John Calvin is one of the most influential writers in the Reformed tradition, so much so that Richard Muller has argued that, in the modern period, Calvin has been over emphasized to the neglect of the rest of the Reformed tradition. Nevertheless, . . . Continue reading →
If Christians have often been tempted to mysticism (the quest to meet God without instruments, media, or means) they have also been tempted to magic, tempted to turn the sacraments into things they are not. The medieval Western church taught and the . . . Continue reading →
It is easy to imagine that sanctification is the result of an immediate action by God upon the soul. By “immediate” I mean that the Spirit is thought to act without using means. In the history of the church more than a . . . Continue reading →
In view of the Martin Luther King holiday I’m re-posting the interview with Mika Edmondson about his work on Dr King. § Americans are in the midst of a national discussion about race. It’s a difficult discussion, one that is not always . . . Continue reading →