Living in Athens
A couple of times a month, as God enables us, the church which I serve attempts to proclaim the gospel in the centre of our town, preaching in the open air, handing out tract-invitations, and engaging in conversation with those…
Category Reformation21
Angst About Religious Liberty in America
The litigious assault on bakers, florists, and photographers who have convictions against serving same-sex wedding planners is a sad cause of much angst these days. Noticing this, Frank Bruni of the New York Times devoted his Jan 10 column to…
Doing and being
It is too easy to make our witness to Christ programmatic and mechanical. There is no doubt that some measure of order and organisation is often profitable. There are many right and proper endeavours that demand structure, planning and management…
The shame of the cross
The Apostle Paul talks about not being ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). He also encourages his co-worker Timothy not to be ashamed of Jesus or of Paul himself, when he is in prison (2 Timothy 1:8). I’ve often wondered…
What on earth is a 100% Calvinist, TGC?
This interview at a Gospel Coalition website struck me as very odd. I suspect that the “Calvinism” these two gentlemen are referring to has very little to do with historic Reformed theology, and more to do with the fact that…
Pastoral letter no. 3
My dear friends: One of the things that was hard about living in St. Louis were all the gray, semi-cold winter days. We would go four or five days in a row with those kinds of days–lower 40s, gray, not…
Scotland, Reformed Orthodoxy, and Tobacco
Despite its premature appearance on Mark Jones’s Top Ten List Of Books That Will Never Make A Top Ten List, tomorrow marks the official release of Reformed Orthodoxy in Scotland: Essays on Scottish Theology 1560-1775 (Bloomsbury Academic). Scholarly views on…
Reasons Why People Leave Churches: A Rebuttal (2)
Depending on the person to whom you speak, there are either 3 or 4 marks of a true church. You have likely heard of at least three marks: the proper preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, and…
But Galileo!
I am working on the second installment of my series on the Bible and evolution (see the first here), but in the meantime it would be good to address one of the most frequent arguments in criticism of those who…
Quoting “Heretics” Approvingly
Who are Reformed Christians, theologians, and pastors allowed to read? Or, more specifically, who are we allowed to cite positively in our writings and conversations? Are we allowed to speak positively of anything N.T. Wright has written, for example, without…