The month of October has been designated Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The goal of this month is to raise public awareness about domestic violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to recognize, prevent, and respond to domestic violence.…
Well, I was going to go on a bit more about the necessity of the local church in the posts headed to this space, but our dear brother in Christ Dr. Mark Jones has done what Presbyterians are prone to…
“Shame. Boatloads of shame. Day after day. More of the same. Blame. Please lift it off. Please take it off. Please make it stop.” Those words are not just the lyrics to a famous Avett Brothers’ song, they are also…
Presbyterian ecclesiology has some advantages. For example, we try to refrain from being sectarian. There is a healthy catholicity to our ecclesiology, which is seen in our communion practice (section 7; see also PCA, BOCO 57-5). In relation to our healthy…
By virtue of his sin Adam “was banished from that royal palace of which he had been the lord.” Yet God did not leave Adam homeless; “he obtained elsewhere” — somewhere east of Eden — “a place in which he…
About fifteen years ago at one of the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, Allan Fisher gave me, a poor doctoral student at the time, one of the best gifts that an aspiring student of theology could ever receive:…
When I made arrangements to start blogging here, I told the fellows in charge that it was unlikely that I would blog more than twice a month at Ref21, but I’m about to only have posted once in my premiere…
In 2011, hip hop artist, Shai Linne, released his album, titled, “The Attributes of God.” In one of his songs, “Taste and See,” he said, “The world is not subtle, why should we be subliminal?” Good question – why? I…
Biographical description many pastors write for the web site of their church: “Married to the most beautiful woman in the world.” “We have the best youth pastor in the country.” “He’s the smartest guy in every room…” I often joke…
Discursive reason–our capacity to think things through, infer conclusions, offer logical explanations, and so on–enables us to argue a point, make judgments, criticize beliefs and actions, and, in a word, philosophize. Philosophers work with concepts and trade in arguments. Some…
