The church need not be morbid. It does, however, need to be honest. Death is not an occasional pastoral problem. It is a fact of ordinary ministry. Every pastor who remains in the ministry long enough will stand beside hospital beds, counsel . . . Continue reading →
Most Christians know they should prepare for death. The difficulty is that we often think of that preparation too narrowly and too late. We prepare documents, make medical decisions, purchase life insurance, discuss funeral preferences, and perhaps choose hymns or Scripture readings . . . Continue reading →
While much of the literature on the ars moriendi comes from the Puritans, examination of the subject did not begin in their era. By the time Reformed and Puritan writers began producing their own manuals, sermons, and prayers on death, they were . . . Continue reading →
Death is a difficult topic for modern Christians. We know that we will die. We confess it in our theology, see it in our families, and hear it announced in prayer meetings, hospital rooms, and funeral homes. Yet for all that, many . . . Continue reading →
When my wife and I married, she was nineteen and I was twenty-one. “Young” and “foolish” were used more than once to describe our swift romance. We did not care. We were excited about our life together and especially the prospect of . . . Continue reading →
On June 11, 1936, a small company of ministers, ruling elders, and laymen gathered in Philadelphia and constituted what was then called the Presbyterian Church of America and would later become the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. To their opponents, the meaning of the . . . Continue reading →
Schism is a serious sin. Presbyterian history gives us no warrant to treat the visible church as a purely voluntary association from which Christians may withdraw whenever they are disappointed, inconvenienced, or persuaded that they could construct something better. This is why . . . Continue reading →
John Calvin is frequently recruited into the current debates about schism, usually by isolating one side of his ecclesiology. Calvin’s severe warnings against abandoning the visible church are quoted as though he regarded nearly every institutional separation as schismatic. Alternatively, his denunciations . . . Continue reading →
The Protestant Reformation undeniably divided the visible church in Western Europe. Congregations ceased communion with Rome, rejected papal jurisdiction (the pope), reconstituted worship according to Scripture and the early church,1 and established new ecclesiastical governments. In that descriptive sense, the Reformation involved . . . Continue reading →
Church division has troubled Christians from the earliest generations of the church. The New Testament repeatedly warns against factions, quarrels, false teachers, and those who disturb the unity of Christ’s body. Those warnings did not become less urgent after the death of . . . Continue reading →
In a previous article, we considered the argument against schism in the Old Testament. Redeemed Zoomer’s (RZ) argument does not rest on the Old Testament alone. He also maintains that Jesus and the apostles remained within the temple and synagogue system until . . . Continue reading →
Continuing our discussion on the recent debates over schism, we now turn to what the Old Testament has to say. Redeemed Zoomer’s (RZ) case against Protestant separation rests heavily on the Old Testament. In a debate with Douglas Wilson hosted by Reformation . . . Continue reading →
I always appreciate clarity and directness. These are not missing in the discussions of schism with Richard Ackerman, the Redeemed Zoomer. He has stated his position in the strongest possible terms in an X (formerly Twitter) post on July 20, 2026: “No . . . Continue reading →
There is no denying that the visible church in our day is a mess. Some people hold a view of what has been called “Christless Christianity,” a watered-down, self-help version of the faith that uses Christian language but replaces the atoning, redemptive . . . Continue reading →
On the internet, I am a nobody. I do not think of myself as anything more than a local pastor who is trying to be faithful in the discharge of his duty. I like to write, so I do that as well. . . . Continue reading →
Joshua 6 is one of those passages that many Christians have known since childhood. It is vivid, memorable, and almost ready-made for Sunday school lessons, children’s songs, and vacation Bible school crafts. Israel marches around Jericho for seven days. On the seventh . . . Continue reading →
Psalm 140 is not a prayer for a person experiencing a mild inconvenience. It is the cry of a man surrounded by violent and deceitful enemies. David is afflicted by men whose hearts devise evil, whose tongues carry venom, and whose hands . . . Continue reading →
J. Gresham Machen was born in Baltimore on this day in 1881, into a prosperous and cultivated Presbyterian family. After studying at Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, and Princeton Theological Seminary, he continued his education in Germany before returning to Princeton Seminary . . . Continue reading →
Psalm 53 begins with one of the bluntest diagnoses of the human heart in all of Scripture: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” This does not mean that every sinner becomes a formal atheist. It means something deeper . . . Continue reading →
Psalm 46 is a hymn celebrating the power of God, the mighty defender of his people. It is the psalm that inspired Martin Luther’s Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” This is a fitting connection because . . . Continue reading →
