No Mere Morality Issue
I was gutted this week when I heard that the New York State Senate passed the Reproductive Health Act, giving women the right to abortion up to the point of birth. I welled up with grief imagining the thousands of…
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Let’s Make Wisdom Great Again
Fake news. Social media outrage. Political polarization. Ideological bullying. These are just a few of the centralizing characteristics of our current social climate in the US. It should not surprise us, then, that our collective cultural head is spinning as…
Creeds, Confessions and the Development of Doctrine: Some Thoughts on Systematic Theology as Poor Relation, Part Two
Last week, I offered some preliminary thoughts on the relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology. This week, I want to consider why it is that theology demands more than just harvesting the immediate results of the exegesis of biblical texts. …
The Karen Pence Rule
Recently it was announced that Karen Pence – a private citizen who is not even occupying an elected office in the United States of America – is going to resume her teaching career at a Christian school. Part of this…
Dueling for Christ at Dort?
As everyone in the Reformed world surely knows by now, 2019 marks 400 years since the Synod of Dort wrapped up proceedings and bequeathed to the Protestant Reformed family of churches that glorious statement of Reformed doctrine known as the…
Some Thoughts on Systematic Theology as Poor Relation, Part One
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Paideia Center Conference in Orlando, focused this year on the catholic, creedal understanding of God. I also sat on a discussion panel with Mike Allen, Scott Swain, Blair Smith and…
The Incarnate Confrontation
We’ve all given and received gifts this past year, and I imagine the majority of those gifts were probably intended to be used in some way, not just owned or placed on a shelf unopened. But it’s likely you’ve had…
The Disease of Ambition
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is an intense and rather gothic tale of seaman Ishmael’s experience whaling under captain Ahab. It’s a well-known story of obsession, revenge, mania, and ruin–the typically edifying material or a great American novel. As everyone familiar…
Hell to Pay
18 years ago, I heard a sermon on Matthew 27:46–Jesus’ cry of dereliction on the cross, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” At one point, the minister who was preaching this message said, “Jesus wasn’t really forsaken;…
When Discontent Sheep Show Up
Most pastors have heard the complaints of visitors coming from other local churches. It is not uncommon for believers to grow discontent with their circumstances and begin looking elsewhere for a new church family at some point in their Christian…