XIV. The law, which God in this manner published, consists of ten words or commandments, Exod. 34:28, Deut. 4:13. Wherefore the Greeks also called it δεκάλογος, the decalogue. Moreover the contents of those ten words are various. 1st, There is the prescription . . . Continue reading →
Gig Harbor URCNA Church Planting Kickoff Meeting September 14, 2018
Under the supervision of the Lynden URC a new URCNA congregation is forming in Gig Harbor, WA. They holding an organizing meeting at 7:00 PM at the Rosedale Hall: 8205 86th Ave NW, Gig Harbor, WA. Rev Mark Vander Pol will be . . . Continue reading →
What Passion City Gets Right And Wrong About The Sabbath
The last time we saw Atlanta Pastor Louie Giglio it was January 2013 and he was embroiled in controversy because he had been invited by President Obama to participate in his second inauguration. It had been discovered that Giglio held the biblical . . . Continue reading →
Salvation Through Grace Alone (Acts 15:11)
The claim by some that there are two stages of justification (initial and final) and that the so-called “initial justification” is by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide) and the so-called “final justification” is in some degree (either partly . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast Series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children
The question of baptism, who should be baptized and why, is not just a question about the sacraments. It is a question that is integrally connected to the way we read the Scriptures (hermeneutics), the way we understand redemptive history, the way . . . Continue reading →
Swain: Niceness Is Counterfeit Meekness
“Niceness” is a counterfeit of meekness or gentleness. The nice person always compliments, never disagrees because he is unwilling to risk his reputation for the sake of the good by opposing with anger what is evil. Scott Swain
Putting Your Stamp On An Iconic Brand
From 1964 until about 1973 the Ford Mustang was one of the coolest (as we used to say) cars on the road. It was instantly recognizable. The classic years were arguably 1967 or 1968. In those years the Mustang had grown up . . . Continue reading →
Rosaria Butterfield’s Alternative To Revoice
RESOURCES Audio Only of This Talk (Presbycast) Gay Christians? Rosaria Butterfield: Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert What The New Testament Says About SSA and More Gagnon On Revoice
Resources On Images Of Christ
The question whether because God the Son became incarnate Christians are free to create images of him has plagued the church since just after the close of the canon. The ancient church, however, rejected them with one voice and the Reformed and Presbyterian churches all confess against images of Christ on biblical and theological grounds. Continue reading →
Gagnon: Revoice Is About Self-Affirmation Not Repentance
The second of my “Seven Concerns” about Revoice and the Spiritual Friendship movement is their unwise adoption of ungodly terminology: The adoption of terminology for self-identity that cannot be sanctified and inevitably brings in the whole “LGBTQ” baggage (“sexual minority,” “gay,” “transgender”). . . . Continue reading →
A. A. Hodge On Christian Liberty
These Sections teach the following propositions: 1st. God alone is Lord of the human conscience, which is responsible only to his authority. 2d. God has authoritatively addressed the human conscience only in his law, the only perfect revelation of which in this . . . Continue reading →
Summer Vacation 2018
Church Growth, The Theology Of The Cross, And The Theology Of Glory
When I entered the evangelical world in the mid-70s there was much talk and teaching (and guilt manipulation) about personal evangelism but not much talk of church growth. A decade later, however, when I went to seminary, it was all the rage. . . . Continue reading →
Resources On Church Growth And Ordinary Means Ministry
The church growth movement has been one of the more influential movements in modern evangelicalism for the last 40 years. Pastors receive a steady stream of emails and advertisements promising to “grow the church” if only his congregation will buy this product or service. In some quarters it is unquestioned dogma, it is axiomatic that if the church is not growing numerically it is failing in its mission. Continue reading →
Sasse: A State Powerful Enough To Put A Baker Out Of Business Is Too Powerful
You don’t get to choose which parts of the First Amendment you like. Using the state to put someone out of business because they don’t share your beliefs is not what we do in America. A state powerful enough to tell bakers . . . Continue reading →
Of Calvin, Social Justice, And The Theology Of The Cross
Yesterday (August 13) was the 477th anniversary of a small but symbolic event in Reformation history. On that date in 1541 John Calvin returned to Geneva from Strasbourg, where he had been a happy exile for about three years. On his first . . . Continue reading →
Godfrey: Machen Was Recovering The Reformed Confession
Dr. Machen was right when he stated of the liberals: “By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured . . . Continue reading →
Contra Papam: Capital Punishment Is Just
At the Diet of Worms (April, 1518) Luther famously said, “Popes and councils do err.” Anyone who knows just a little about the history of the church must agree with Luther. Popes and councils have directly and repeatedly contradicted themselves and each . . . Continue reading →
One Way To Escape Biblicism
Much of recent American Reformed theology has been caught up for some time in a distorted form of biblicism that has fallen into the trap of trying to reinvent theological wheel in areas where doing so is fraught with danger—in particular, the . . . Continue reading →
With Bill Feltner On Distinguishing The Jerusalem From Above From The Jerusalem That Is Below
There is much consternation and joy about the announcement that the United States intends to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Some evangelicals and fundamentalists, perhaps inspired by a Dispensational understanding of redemptive history and their pre-millennial hermeneutic, are overjoyed with . . . Continue reading →