Gracious God and Father, we lift our grateful hearts to You now, and ask that You would be pleased to honor Your name through our rest before You. We ask that we would be enabled by Your Spirit to take it easy, to set down the burdens of our vocational callings, and prepare our hearts …
Guilt and Responsibility
Questions concerning life and death remain before us. In the passage we are considering now, more aspects of the sixth commandment are unfolded. If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it . . . (Deuteronomy 21:1-23) In old Israel, when a man was found slain, …
Mercy and Glory (1 Timothy 1:12-20)
Introduction: God advances His kingdom in the world, and because he calls fallen men to be His ministers, He is always working with flawed instruments. The only exception, of course, was the Lord Jesus Himself, but everyone else, from the apostles on down, has to deal with their inadequacies for the task. The Text: “And …
I Know My Baptists
Well, I am done with By Faith Alone — done with the book, that is, not the doctrine. I want to deal with the last three entries in one post all together because I don’t really have a great deal to say about each one. John Bolt, a professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological …
Why Not Now?
The next chapter in By Faith Alone is entitled “Covenant, Inheritance, and Typology,” and is co-authored by R. Fowler White and Cal Beisner. Their argument is ingenious, intricate, and, I believe, entirely unsatisfactory. What they are seeking to do is understand the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace in …
Like Gideon’s Men
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! The Lord said to my own Lord, Sit here, at my right hand. And as You sit, and as You reign, I will make a footrest from Your foes. The Lord shall send the rod of strength, From out of Zion comes …
The Kingdom of God is a Fine Automobile
The doctrine of the kingdom of God is like a fine automobile. Some parts of it are lush, and polished, and comfortable, with climate control, and windows that go up and down with the press of a button. Other parts of it are cold and metallic, greasy, heavy and far too . . . doctrinal. …
Cell Block E
I do have a couple of things to say about David VanDrunen’s contribution to By Faith Alone. First, he is guilty of continued misrepresentation of those he is debating with. “Although recent criticism of the traditional Reformed doctrine of justification has taken many forms, nearly all critics seem to concur in dismissing the idea of …
Picking Up Feathers
Gene Veith comments on Worldmagblog here. A friend drew my attention to this post of a few days ago. I have included below a comment which I posted at his site, but I also need to say something here. Given the climate in the Reformed world today, and given how many people go to Worldmagblog, …
Biblical Warfare
A subject clearly related to murder is the question of war. Whenever war is not conducted in accordance with the Word of God, then it amounts to nothing more than mass murder sanctioned by the civil authority. Consequently, it is important for us to know something of what biblical war looks like. When thou goest …