Christians in the Cultural Closet
Our society celebrates the openness with which it accepts homosexuality and transgenderism. It contrasts our present enlightened times with past eras when what are now called “sexual minorities,” LGBTQers, were…
Terry L. Johnson
The Zwinglian Option
You will have heard of the “Benedict Option” for coping with the culture wars. I would like to propose to Reformed Protestants the “Zwinglian Option” for ending the worship wars:…
Martin Bucer and the Reform of Worship
If Martin Bucer (1477-1548) is not an unsung hero of the Reformation, he is certainly an undersung hero. This particularly is the case when it comes to public worship. Bucer’s…
The Quest for Biblical Worship (Part 2)
Reformed churches not only have the regulative principle worship (RPW) to guide them regarding elements and forms, but they also, throughout their history, have had liturgies and directories. The liturgies…
The Quest for Biblical Worship (Part 1)
Which is more likely today, liturgical sameness or liturgical strangeness? Which is more damaging to the integrity of Protestant denominations? Are we suffocating from liturgical uniformity–encountering the same old predictable…
J. Alec Motyer: A Personal Remembrance
I left for England from Los Angeles in September 1977 because of one man and one book: J. I. Packer and Knowing God. Looking back, it was quite naïve of…
A Troubling Turn: PCA General Assembly 2016
By and large I have stayed out of the politics of the General Assembly (GA) for the past 34 years. Because I pastor at an independent Presbyterian church, I have…
Hughes Oliphant Old: A Personal Remembrance
Tomorrow the remains of Hughes Oliphant Old (April 13, 1933 – May 24, 2016) will be interred at the Christian Street Cemetery in White River Junction, Vermont. A prince in Israel has…
Scripture and Worship: Biblical Interpretation and the Directory of Public Worship
The dust that can be seen swirling in the distance is the aftereffects of Richard A. Muller’s scholarly avalanche. He has marshaled mountains of historical evidence to bury the various…