Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
During one of my AAPC lectures I read a portion of Richard Mitchell’s provocative little book The Underground Grammarian . Here’s the portion I read: The mind is a rudderless wanderer blown here or there by any puff of breeze. If I mention watermelons, you must think of watermelons; if…
This is the donation thank-you essay for January 2008. Our studies in the Psalms go out month by month in response to donations. I’m putting this one up here as an example, and also because the version I actually mailed out contained several egregious arithmetical errors! So, here is the…
Part 1: Introduction The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of “traditional” or “canon” learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the…
While “forgiving oneself” is widely accepted in the secular world as a legitimate and needful thing to do, Christians are rightly suspicious. After all, God is the one who forgives. When we sin against other people, we need to seek their forgiveness, not our own. Nevertheless after looking at Vine’s…
This was originally published as HIStory in the column, “A Pastor’s Perspective” in Ligonier Ministrie’s Tabletalk Magazine . I am not sure of the date but it was probably published in 1999 or 2000. Quick! What’s the basic message of the Bible? Summarize it in as few words as possible…
A Brief Explanation of What a Presbytery Is & Why Pastors in Presbyterian Denominations are Members of Them A belief in the primacy of the local congregation of the Church, I think, reflects the gut feeling of most North American Evangelicals. As a result, the form of Church government universally…
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My previous couple of posts highlight the fact that paedocommunion lurks behind the whole Federal Vision debate. Paedocommunion disambiguates the ambiguous “God is/isn’t your God” that paedobaptism without paedocommunion declares to our children.
The Federal Vision has been about a lot of things, but one of the central pastoral issues has to do with the status of our children, what we say to them, and how we say it. From one perspective, the Federal Vision is an effort to articulate a consistent paedobaptist…
The PCA Federal Vision report condemns the notion that some receive saving benefits of Christ and later lose them. But this runs contrary to the PCA’s own covenant understanding of infant baptism and the statements of its own Constitution. Consider: Children of believers, all Presbyterians confess, are covenant children. At…
This is a copy of a letter I sent to the stated clerk of my Presbytery this morning. To the Stated Clerk: I don’t know if I’m technically required to send this letter, but following the GA’s vote on the Federal Vision study committee yesterday, I thought it would be…
It’s long been a frustration that there are few fora for theological discussion and debate in the PCA. Presbyteries sometimes devote time to such discussion, but that’s too rare. And GA is simply not a place where theological debate can be expected to happen. Yesterday’s debate on the Federal Vision…
During the PCA debate on the Federal Vision, PCA minister David Coffin dismissed NT Wright’s supposed claims to have discovered the gospel that had been hidden for centuries. Coffin found the claim dubious. I am dubious that Wright actually makes the claims that Coffin attributes to him. He claims to…
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