Ref21 Blog

For all those politco-obsessives who have been devouring Tony Blair's naval-gazing memoirs, there's at least one shocker: Bono could have been a Prime Minister or President! See, here....

Further evidence of the erosion of a Christian worldview as the BBC and The Times recently announced "God did not create the Universe" -- aka Rupert Murdoch and Stephen Hawking (see here). In response, our friend David Robertson of the Dundee/Centre...

John L. Allen Jnr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, has written an interesting, and long, review of a new, highly critical biography of Benedict XVI.  The review makes for fascinating reading.  Anyone unfamiliar with Allen's writing is missing...

It is a pleasure to report that the excellent website Beginning with Moses is back up and running.  Not so much revival as resurrection, I suspect -- the UK was rife with dark rumours earlier this year that somebody (who...

Beware those who pretend to be shepherds but are really ravening wolves.  CRT's expose of the defective theology of `Rush' comes not a moment too soon.  It appears that Pelagianism is being promoted through rock music even in some allegedly...

The recent criticism from a member of the Missouri Synod, concerning Reformed church planting in Germany, was rooted in part in what the critic (in the comments section) articulated as a frustration with the constant attempts of the Reformed to...

Sunday evening, at one of our infrequent sessions with the interns (supper and Q and A), Ligon and myself were asked an interesting question, one which has remained with me: what does a preacher do when confronted by differing opinions...

As a brief postscript to yesterday's posts on pastors, I received an email last night from Danny Hyde, the URC minister in Oceanside, CA, drawing my attention to Acts 20:20, where Paul describes his ministry among the Ephesians.  It provides...

A good point, Justin, which has been made to me in a few emails I've received this morning.  I would respond as follows:1. The pastor is the full time person and therefore the buck stops with him.  Elders have duties...

Carl, thanks for the thoughtful post. As usual, there's always food for thought--and I always want just a bit more nuance here or there!What do you think about how this all relates to a plurality of elders? It seems clear...

Russell Moore has written a great piece which exposes the idolatrous nature of Glenn Beck's ghastly self-promotional pantomime on Saturday, and the evidence this provides of the woeful state of an evangelicalism that, to put it bluntly, greets blasphemy as...

A friend who works at a seminary told me the other day of an incident which he described as `personally very instructive.'  Somebody called his institution, wanting to know about the state of the soul between death and resurrection.  The...

A bad week for Trueman, a good week for taxi drivers.  Now he's upset the Lutherans -- say it ain't so!  Clearly, his appeal to pray for the spread of the gospel in Germany should not have included prayer for...

Having bored you all silly over the last three weeks with Luther material, here's a video about an exciting new venture being pioneered in Germany by Sebastian Heck, a Reformed pastor who wants to see Luther's gospel once again preached...

In yesterday's post, I pointed to the fact that, while we today find Luther's 1543 work, On the Jews and their Lies, extraordinarily vile and offensive, it was, sadly, in many ways a rather conventional piece for the time.  I...