The Oregon Constitution allows religious exemptions from laws that are generally applicable, but Avakian ruled that out from the very beginning. Can he really be presumed to be fair and neutral when he said our business was unlawfully discriminating before he had . . . Continue reading →
What Kind Of A Reformation Do We Need?
One of the questions submitted to the Reformation conference last fall at the Lynden URC asks “in regards to the current state of the church, what is needed in terms of a Reformation?” That’s a great question. If we are talking about . . . Continue reading →
Warfield: Study While You Pray And Pray While You Study
I am asked to speak to you on the religious life of the student of theology. I approach the subject with some trepidation. I think it the most important subject which can engage our thought. You will not suspect me, in saying . . . Continue reading →
The Logic Of Fruit As Evidence
The charge made by Rome and the Anabaptists, among others, was that the evangelical doctrine of salvation sola gratia, sola fide would make Christians cold and careless about their sanctification. The Reformed churches refuted that charge by arguing that the same grace by which we have been given new life also produces faith and it is “impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful.” True faith is God’s gift. It unites us to the risen and ascended Christ who, by his Spirit, works in us conformity to himself and to his moral will. This is how we understand “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). Rome, remember, turned “faith working through love” into “faith formed by love” (on this see part 1). In response, Calvin wrote on Galatians 5:6, “When you are engaged in discussing the question of justification, beware of allowing any mention to be made of love or of works, but resolutely adhere to the exclusive particle.” Continue reading →
What Happens When We Meditate On The Abrahamic Promise
For the record, a lot of ladies have told me they finally understand baptism because of, "I will be a God to you and your children" — Coleen Sharp (@reformed_gal) June 15, 2018
Confessional Reformed Pastor Faces Arrest For The Sake Of The Gospel
A 1998 graduate of Westminster Seminary California, Turkish-born Fikret Böcek moved back to his country in 2001 to plant a confessional Reformed church in Izmir – the ancient Smyrna, the persecuted city of Revelation 2:8–11, where bishop Polycarp famously died for his . . . Continue reading →
What Creepy Clowns Tell Us About Social Anxiety
The creepy clown craze caught me off guard. I suppose my earliest exposure to clowns came through the children’s television show Captain Kangaroo, hosted by Bob Keeshan. He himself had played Clarabelle the Clown on the Howdy Doody television program, which was . . . Continue reading →
Resources On Machen, Christianity, And Liberalism
In 1923 J. Gresham Machen, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, published one of the more important books in the modern history of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches, Christianity and Liberalism. It was a stirring and cogent defense of the thesis that . . . Continue reading →
When A Cake Is More Than A Cake
Erik Erickson makes a point this morning that I try to make to my Ancient Church students each year. Words mean things. Some words, spoken in some contexts, mean so much that Christians have been willing to die and have been murdered . . . Continue reading →
“The City Of Phoenix Seeks To Comandeer…Minds And Bodies”
Phoenix does not merely seek to make Joanna and Breanna a passive courier of its message, but seeks to commandeer their very minds and bodies to envision, design, create, and convey its message. It does this via § 18-4(B)(1)-(2), which prohibits places . . . Continue reading →
The Church: The Christ-Confessing Covenant Community
When one talks about the church what is at stake is the way in which the Christian life is organized. I believe that the Bible teaches us that believers should be united to the visible community of the redeemed meeting for worship, instruction, and fellowship in an organized, disciplined, way. If I am wrong, then millions of dollars and millions of hours and lives are being sadly misspent. Continue reading →
Eastman: “Masterpiece” Is A Big Win For Religious Liberty
Despite almost 30 years of Supreme Court case law emptying the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause of almost all substantive content (thanks largely to a 1990 decision by Justice Scalia called Employment Division v. Smith), the Supreme Court has now confirmed that . . . Continue reading →
Reno: Consequences Of The Institutionalization Of The Sexual Revolution
It was inevitable that the institutionalization of the sexual revolution would be carried forward by appeals to the postwar anti-discrimination tradition. And that tradition is loaded with explosive moral condemnation of any who dissent. The Colorado commissioner who implied that Jack Phillips . . . Continue reading →
Justice Thomas: “I Warned You”
In Obergefell, I warned that the Court’s decision would “inevitabl[y] . . . come into conflict” with religious liberty, “as individuals . . . are confronted with demands to participate in and endorse civil marriages between same-sex couples.” 576 U. S., at . . . Continue reading →
Another Canary In Another Educational Coal Mine?
The crest of Duke University, one of the more prestigious universities in the United States, says, “eruditio et religio” (learning and piety). The crest signifies the school’s roots in the early and mid-19th century first as a joint Quaker/Methodist project and later . . . Continue reading →
Jude On The Continuity Of The Covenant Of Grace
Tucked in as it is between 3 John and the Revelation, it is easy to over look the epistle of Jude but this past Lord’s Day I noticed something I had not before and that something tells us a good deal about . . . Continue reading →
SCOTUS: Colorado Civil Rights Commission Exhibited Anti-Christian Bias
…To Phillips, his claim that using his artistic skills to make an expressive statement, a wedding endorsement in his own voice and of his own creation, has a significant First Amendment speech component and implicates his deep and sincere religious beliefs. His . . . Continue reading →
Move In Day Begins
May Churches In Oregon Be Sued For Refusing To Host LGBTQ Weddings? It Depends
Christine Lewis, the labor bureau’s legislative director, said she couldn’t give a blanket answer as to whether churches in Oregon can legally refuse to allow gay groups to rent out their spaces. That depends on “the unique facts of each case,” she . . . Continue reading →
John Owen On The Continuity Of The Abrahamic Covenant With the New Covenant
6. We have seen that Abraham, on the account of his faith, and not of his separation according to the flesh, was the father of all that believe, and heir of the world. And in the covenant made with him, as to . . . Continue reading →