Reformation21

The curious decision of Adam and Eve, having been the recipients of such goodness from God, to defect from their Maker, thus spoiling the "native excellence" of both themselves and "the whole world which had been created for them," raises "many difficult questions." Chief among them, Calvin...

My wife and I had been married for nearly a week. Getting home from work, we decided to order a pizza that night for supper. About a half hour later, we heard a knock at the door and asked, "Who is it?" There was silence. "Who is it?" we again repeated. Still, there was no answer. We opened the...

At an OPC youth camp over a year ago I had the privilege of addressing young men and women on the topic of masturbation, among other topics (e.g., Machen, Machen, and more Machen). As some of you may know, the OPC are notorious for letting the PCA do their theological dirty-work. But I digress.....

I recently heard a story that both grieves my heart and provides a glimmer of hope. The story was conveyed to me by a retired public school principal. For the sake of this post, let's call him, Jack. Jack is a Christian; Jack was the principle at an ethnically diverse school; Jack is white. One day...

Are you watching the news? Are you reading blogs and news reports about the recent death of 18-year old Michael Brown? Have you watched the protests that have and will continue to occur? Are you, in any sense, moved to pray or talk to others about this? I have scanned the internet for various...

We tend towards one of two extremes in our attitudes towards work: either we make too little of it, or we make too much of it. We make too little of work when we regard it with contempt, when we treat it as an evil -- albeit a necessary one since it supplies the financial resources necessary to...

In exposing and critiquing the shallow culture of Western celebrity that too easily infiltrates the church of Jesus Christ, we must be careful not to allow that to become an equally crass dismissiveness of legitimately-earned reputation. Empty pomposity and unfounded adulation deserves to be...

I'm sitting at the dining room table at my in-laws waiting for a call from someone to come fix my broken car (a minor issue, really, but one that needs attention). Tricia's parents aren't here: her father is sitting with his elderly mother about an hour up the road and her mother is at dialysis (it...

Augustine's second homily on the Gospel of John offers one of the richest commentaries on John 1.12 that I have read. His explanation of what it means for God to give us "the right to become children of God" is worth quoting in full: What did he bestow on them? Great kindness; great mercy. Singly...

I've been working of late on the doctrine of the pactum salutis , i.e., the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of elect sinners. Here, as in so many places, John Owen is instructive. Although it is not central to my own project, Owen's discussion of the...