My favorite Books of 2024
My Favorite Books of 2024 Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung This is my pick for the Book of the Year. DeYoung has taken a rather unique and refreshing approach to a volume of systematic theology. It is composed as…
Tag biblical fidelity
Hospitality: The Forgotten Qualification
When considering the qualifications for elders, “able to teach” is often recognized as the one qualification uniquely required for the office (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:9). Certainly, the unique role of elders centers on “the ministry of the word” (Acts…
What Does Your Pulpit (Or Lack of One) Communicate to the Congregation?
‘After the hymn, the minister will ascend the stairs into the pulpit for the Scripture reading, pastoral prayer, and sermon.’ What role does the physical pulpit have in a local church? For most of my life, I attended churches where…
Letter to a progressive Christian: Why you need to believe in an infallible Bible
Imagine a young man meets a woman on a dating website. He sees her picture and is infatuated, but upon meeting her things don’t go well. She says she doesn’t like baseball, but the man does, so he insists that…
From Covenant to Confessional
I shouted over the many voices crammed into the Twin Lakes cafeteria, “I went to Covenant!” The man was likely the same age as me and looked very confused by this answer. “How did you end up here?” I am…
Ten Petitions and Praises about the Sabbath
The prayers of a Sunday morning service offer a perfect context to encourage both gratitude for the Sabbath and renewed ambitions for the Lord’s day. If you are a pastor or elder seeking to encourage thoughtfulness about the fourth commandment,…
Understanding the Cry of Dereliction
‘And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”’ (Mark 15:34). What exactly was happening on the cross when Jesus spoke these…
He fell today; I may fall tomorrow
Steve Lawson has been removed from ministry at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas due to an inappropriate relationship with a woman who is not his wife. Other places he is affiliated with have acted swiftly to remove him from his…
Is Hyper-Cessationism a Fair Term? Part Two
I am encouraged by the amount of interest my article on hyper-cessationism has received. It has reinforced my suspicion that the Reformed world is hungry for warmer expressions of orthodoxy, and that our spark has been waiting for us all…
What is a Hyper-Cessationist?
As a capital “R” Reformed person, I would call myself a cessationist. This simply means that I believe God has “ceased” giving any new doctrine and/or new ethics. You could also describe it as the belief that there is no…