We might not come back at all. Continue reading →
Comic
The Canons Of Dork #31 For August 3, 2024
To The Evangelical Nicodemites (Part One)
Over the last few years there have been a few laments about “Reformed rocks stars.” Carl Trueman has rightly warned against the cult of personality.1 Now, I would like to turn the tables. If we should be concerned about rock stars and . . . Continue reading →
Book Review
Review: Children At The Lord’s Table? By Cornelis P. Venema (Part One)
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 →
Elon Is Wrong: The Gates Of Hell Will Not Prevail
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris was four hours long. Part of the ceremony featured the return of Celine Dion, the procession of competitors, and other highlights. The most controversial aspect, however, was the introduction into the ceremony . . . Continue reading →
Why Membership Matters
Kevin DeYoung offers several practical reasons why church membership matters.1 At least one of the comments on his article called for biblical proof for the idea of church membership. I offer these biblical considerations.2 There is a widespread notion that a truly . . . Continue reading →
On The Distinction Between BBQ And The Kingdom Of God
All my reading material was on my computer, so on the way into the air and on the way down I read the American Airlines American Way magazine.1 It is not often that one finds stories about churches in the in-flight mag, but . . . Continue reading →
Education True And False (Part 2)
In the previous part, we looked at the first mark of a true school: genuine learning. We continue here with a discussion of the second mark: what makes a proper faculty. A second objective mark of the quality of a faculty is . . . Continue reading →
Education True and False (Part 1)
Americans are busy people who continue to conquer a big place which has, since the eighteenth century, offered wealth and great influence to those who work hard and who produce a product or service valued by others. Education, per se, has not . . . Continue reading →
Put Away Your Conspiracy Theories: Christ Reigns
There is a risk in writing about fast-changing news. As of this writing, we do not know why a disturbed young man tried to murder the former president of the United States. He appears to have been a loner, bullied, who lashed . . . Continue reading →
Book Review
Review: Reformed Scholasticism: Recovering the Tools of Reformed Theology By Ryan M. McGraw (Part Two)
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 →
The Chariots Are Still On Fire And Liddell Is Still Right
He was meant to dig his running spikes into the cinders, find his balance, wait for the sound of the starter’s gun, and sprint 100 meters to Olympic glory. After all, this was one of the races for which he had trained, . . . Continue reading →
Measuring The Health Of A Church
For many the eighteenth century is regarded as the “century of mission,” or perhaps the century of the so-called First Great Awakening.1 But if fidelity to the Reformed Confession is a mark of the health of the church, there are many ways in . . . Continue reading →
Book Review
Review: Reformed Scholasticism: Recovering the Tools of Reformed Theology By Ryan M. McGraw (Part One)
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 →
Do This and Live: Christ’s Active Obedience as the Ground of Justification
In the controversy between Protestants and Roman Catholics there has been no question whether Jesus obeyed God’s law, but only to what effect. Did Jesus obey the law so as to make it possible for us to cooperate with grace toward future justification, or did he obey God’s law for us (pro nobis) to accomplish our justification once for all? The Protestants affirmed the latter and denied the former. Nevertheless, despite the unity among confessional Protestants on justification, questions have persistently arisen among them concerning the nature, intent, and effect of Jesus’s law keeping and its relation to the justification of sinners. Continue reading →
Comic
The Canons Of Dork #30 For July 6, 2024
My Country Tis of Thee. Continue reading →
Harry Potter And The Allure Of A Magical World
The Harry Potter movies were enchanting movies (pun intended). They are shot through with overt theological themes: ontology, good and evil, cosmology, sin, and redemption. Part way through one of them, I remembered something that Bob Godfrey once said, something that I . . . Continue reading →
Is It Live Or Is It Memorex?
The Church of Scotland was recently convulsed by a controversy over the call of a practicing homosexual minister.1 According to a recent news report it appears that the Church of Scotland has more trouble with her ministry in her consideration of virtual pastoring.2 . . . Continue reading →
Featley: The Sweet Dipper (Part 5)
The actual account of the meeting between Featley and the Baptists is quite interesting. The substance of it begins when Featley was challenged by an anonymous “Scotch-man” who challenged him thus: Master Doctor, we come to dispute with you at this time, . . . Continue reading →
Synod Escondido (2024): Fellowship, Cooperation, And Mission
The first thing that Synod Escondido (URCNA) did was to gather for prayer, the singing of the Psalms (principally), and devotions led by the Rev. Chris Gordon, pastor of Escondido United Reformed Church. Anyone who heard the singing of the Psalms—and especially . . . Continue reading →
Psalters!
When I began to become Reformed (c. 1980–81), the Reformed churches I knew were hymn-singing congregations. Typically, they used the blue Trinity Hymnal (1961), published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (and later by Great Commission Publications). There are Psalms (for singing and . . . Continue reading →