“There are only two established sacraments in the Christian Church, which are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But the whole world is sacramental, teeming with metaphor. To come to a fuller understanding of this, we should seek to grow in our knowledge of the two formal sacraments that have been placed within the Church. Baptism …
Cultural Backbone
Chesterton once commented that a man who does not believe something will fall for anything. The observation certainly holds for societies, and only a blind man could fail to miss that such a necessary gullibility is currently driving our culture. The gullibility is not created by various social pressures; rather, such pressures reveal the gullibility. …
Religious Authority in Israel
Under our discussion of the fifth commandment, we have been dealing with broader questions of authority, with an emphasis on “secular” authority. In this portion, we come to questions of religious authority, both legitimate and illegitimate. “The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel . …
What Abraham Saw
Frank Turk has made a reasonable request in the comments section of the previous post. He has asked for 200 words on why I believe that Abraham believed the expansive promises, and whether this is in tension with Christ’s statement that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. So here it is, in brief compass. Remember …
A Mousetrap Gospel
I’ll explain the title shortly. Promise. The next chapter in By Faith Alone is by Rick Phillips, and in it he tackles two different challenges to the Reformed doctrine of imputation. The first is on the part of contemporary Arminians, who say that God accepts our faith in lieu of righteousness, and the second is …
Everything But His Reason
Chesterton once commented that a madman is not someone who has lost his reason; he is a man who has lost everything but his reason. Once there was a man who was driven by emotional forces, largely invisible to him. He was deeply insecure, and so he went from one fractured relationship to another. He …
The Need to Banish Lying Tongues
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Of mercy and judgment I will sing; Unto You O Lord, I will always sing. I will walk in wisdom, in a perfect way. When will You come down to me? Within my house I will walk the same way, With a …
The Sabbath Cornerstone
As we seek to return to an observance of a Christian calendar, we need to be careful to avoid the mistake that our fathers made. In the course of the medieval period, the year filled up with so many saints days that they had the effect that barnacles have on a ship that at one …
The People Had a Mind to Work
One of the great blessings which was given to Nehemiah in the course of his life was blessing of a people ready for work. “So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work” (Neh. 4:6). The gift of an …
The Wrong Line of Work
After a brief introduction and greetings, Paul raises the issue that is troubling him, and that is the fact that someone is troubling the Galatians. Not only this, but they are not being troubled on some secondary issue. The gospel itself is at stake. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that …