We have twenty-seven New Testament books in our Christian Bibles. More properly, we have twenty-seven historical records, accounts, and letters about Jesus the Christ and his church at work through the Holy Spirit in the first-century world. These, together with the Hebrew . . . Continue reading →
Within the bookstore of biblical studies, an alarming variety of works rest upon the shelves. Erudite tomes of philology and archeology, collections of sermons, thematic monographs, devotional series, and popular commentaries intermingle like diverse species in a rainforest. Arguably, each type has . . . Continue reading →
In the responses to Part 1 of this review, many comments pointed out that I had not engaged much with the negative aspects of Shepherds for Sale. In this second part, I will include reflections on the less precise and more unhelpful . . . Continue reading →
The controversy surrounding Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale has somewhat died down by now, but the fault lines it has clarified in the Christian media world are still clear. There are those whose suspicions about progressive influences in Christian institutions have been . . . Continue reading →
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) is naturally suited for devotional use. Its devotional qualities have been recognized almost from the instant it was first published. How many people who know virtually nothing else about the catechism know all or part of the first . . . Continue reading →
Not many dates are worthy of remembrance over a century-and-a-half later. The beginning or end of a war or the death of a nation’s leader might be on people’s radar for a few decades, maybe a century, but eventually the slow decay . . . Continue reading →
Not many things make a preacher more excited than having visitors to the congregation any given morning or evening for worship. We encourage our people to invite their friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors, and hopefully we ourselves are doing the same . . . Continue reading →
In 1946, the General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) was going through one of the most controversial events in its history. Formed a decade earlier in 1936, the church was still young, and its founder, the Princeton professor of New . . . Continue reading →
Following up on his 2021 work The Failure of Natural Theology, which served as a clarion call to abandon the retrieval movement and return to a more biblical view of natural theology and Christian theism, Jeffrey Johnson has published another work towards this . . . Continue reading →
I am not a betting man, but if I were I would be willing to bet some serious book money that if you start talking theological shop with any Presbyterian or Reformed Christian, you will hear the word covenant within the first . . . Continue reading →
In early July 2024, at the fourth annual National Conservatism Conference in Washington D.C., Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Doug Wilson, Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, ID, met to discuss Christian nationalism in America.1 During a panel, . . . Continue reading →
According to Venema, the “most important and compelling piece of New Testament evidence that bears on the question of paedocommunion is undeniably 1 Corinthians 11:17–34” (101). This is because this passage is “the most extensive and comprehensive New Testament passage on the . . . Continue reading →
Venema observes that the Reformed churches are committed to the principle of sola Scriptura which means that the Scriptures are to be “regarded as the supreme standard for their faith and life,” but that principle does not mean that we read the Scriptures in isolation from the church or from church history (27). Continue reading →
In this volume Cornelis Venema tackles a serious problem in the Reformed world that needs to be addressed, and he has done so in a thoughtful, thorough, biblical, and confessionally Reformed manner. Background to the Review Before we begin the review, it . . . Continue reading →
I grew up outside of the Reformed tradition, though I have been a member of Presbyterian or Reformed churches for over a decade. Growing up, it was common to describe people in the church as “prayer warriors.” This is not something I . . . Continue reading →
McGraw’s advice about how to learn Latin has some useful and interesting aspects, but he seems to endorse a sort of inductive approach and uses the words “very little effort” (37). He seems to discourage memorization. Continue reading →
Commendations In the wake of Richard Muller’s revolutionary work (he overturned a consensus of more than a century, grounded in the work of Alexander Schweizer [1808–1888] and Heinrich Heppe [1820–1879]), there are questions that remain to be addressed in the study and . . . Continue reading →
As of late, popular Christian culture has been saturated with books critical of evangelicalism—for supporting President Trump and Republicans as a voting bloc, for causing political divisiveness in the church, for being largely white, and for just generally supporting things that the . . . Continue reading →
“Thank God!” It rolls right off the tongue. It is so easy to say most times that you do not even need to think about it. But perhaps that is the problem. How often do we think about giving thanks? When and . . . Continue reading →
Of the Ten Commandments, I am not sure there is one more ignored, or at least more misunderstood, than, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exod 20:8). The issue is not simply that it is disobeyed, but that it seems . . . Continue reading →