In 2008, Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom published Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism.1 The book was measured in its answer, but in an interview at the time of publication, Noll said, yes, the Reformation is over. . . . Continue reading →
Christians are lifelong students of Christ. Disciples are pupils in the school of the great Teacher. We are constantly learning more about Christ, his salvation, and what it means to follow him in faith. Similarly, preachers are lifelong students. There is no . . . Continue reading →
Christopher Ash has published a slew of material on the Psalms in his career.1 That trajectory has culminated in his massive four-volume commentary on the whole Psalter. This work is a tremendous contribution, not in the cliché sense, but in every way . . . Continue reading →
Good commentaries that are useful for preaching are hard to find. Rarely do commentators manage to blend exegesis, theology, and pastoral significance together very well. When it comes to the Psalms, several good commentaries exist that address strictly exegetical issues, dealing with . . . Continue reading →
According to recent Gallup polls, American churches are emptier today than they were twenty-five years ago.1 Church membership is falling in large numbers. In fact, over fifty percent of Americans rarely or never attend worship services—and if they do, it is usually . . . Continue reading →
In Tolkien’s Two Towers Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas attack a white-clad old man, thinking him Saruman. Realizing their error, they apologize to Gandalf saying, “We thought you were Saruman.” Gandalf says, “I am Saruman, or rather Saruman as he should have been.” . . . Continue reading →
I wonder how many books about preaching have been published. Two hundred? Five hundred? It is hard to know for sure, but the number is not small. And although there are numerous books about preaching, most of them are quite similar. They . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed and Presbyterian world is currently enjoying a steady stream of recently-translated sixteenth- and seventeenth-century treatises and writings heretofore only available in Latin—texts written by luminaries like Theodore Beza, Caspar Olevianus, William Ames, Robert Rollock, Francis Turretin, and Johann Heidegger, to . . . Continue reading →
We pick up again with Alan Strange’s treatment of Hodge in Empowered Witness. There are some questions raised by this work that bear consideration in a review. A reader who is not already in sympathy with the essential argument or who perhaps . . . Continue reading →
The debate last year over the overture by Evangel Presbytery to the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church in America (overture 12), which was adopted by GA, presented acutely the question of the spirituality of the church. Overture 12 asked GA . . . Continue reading →
Approaching the one-thousand-year-old Oxford Castle and Prison from the east, at the corner of Castle St. and New Rd., the entire crosswalk is emblazoned with rainbow colors, indicating the Oxford city council’s solidarity with the local LGBTQ+ community. Continue reading →
If you have been in the Presbyterian and Reformed world long, at some point you have likely heard of Cornelius Van Til. He has had an enormous influence. For some people, Reformed and presuppositional apologetics are nearly synonyms. This may be surprising . . . Continue reading →
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 →
